[Vision2020] Where would $1 billion in pot money go if California marijuana is legalized?

[Ted Moffett]

Price competition between states might sometimes result in increases in tax
revenue for some adjacent states offering legalized cannabis, as
has happened to Idaho's alcohol tax revenues after Washington State turned
hard alcohol sales over to the private sector.

Excuse my pedantry, but with the level of state government taxation of
alcohol or cannabis, these products are not functioning in a truly price
competitive "free market" system.  Washington increased alcohol taxation in
the 2012 privatization scheme, thus the cross border sales in Idaho of
alcohol to those living in Washington avoiding Washington's higher prices.

A few references below:

https://www.legislature.idaho.gov/budget/publications/FiscalFacts/current/FF.pdf

Revenues & Appropriations

*FY 2012  FY 2013  FY 2014  FY 2015*

Liquor Profits $17.2  $20.9  $24.2  $25.5
------------------------------------------
http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/boise/2016/feb/05/idaho-liquor-division-still-making-washington-buyers/

FRIDAY, FEB. 5, 2016, 9:58 A.M.Idaho Liquor Division still making $$ off
Washington buyers

*By Betsy Z. Russell*
Idaho’s state Liquor Division reports that its sales continue to see a big
boost thanks to Washington having privatized liquor in 2012, driving up
prices there and prompting more near-border customers to buy their booze
across the state line in Idaho. Idaho Liquor Division sales were $143.9
million in fiscal year 2011; they hit $169 million in 2014, $179 million in
2015 and are projected to hit $185.7 million in the current year, fiscal
year 2016. Next year, sales are forecast at $193.3 million, up 4.1 percent
from this year.
---------------------------------------
Ditto for Oregon:
http://www.opb.org/news/article/npr-washington-liquor-privatization-continues-to-drive-sales-to-oregon-idaho/
Washington Liquor Privatization Drives Sales To Oregon, Idaho

by *Tom Banse* <http://www.opb.org/contributor/tom-banse/>   Feb. 8, 2016
5:45 p.m

The privatization of retail liquor sales in Washington state has delivered
a sustained boost to the state liquor divisions in neighboring Idaho
and Oregon.

Private retailers took over liquor sales in Washington in 2012 following
passage of a ballot measure, notably backed by Costco. An analysis by the
Alcohol Research Group at the Public Health Institute in Emeryville,
California, published last year found that liquor prices rose by an average
of 15.5 percent after privatization
<http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/content/50/6/654> but vary greatly by
store type. The price increases were largely due to added state taxes.
---------------------------------------
Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett

On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 11:22 PM, Kenneth Marcy <kmmos1 at frontier.com> wrote:

On 09/19/2016 09:44 PM, Ron Force wrote:
>
> Just to keep things in perspective, $1 billion is 0.6% of the California
> state budget. "Sin" taxes and lotteries rarely amount to much in the
> overall scheme of things.
>
>
> Without wishing to be even more of a spoil-sport, I think it ought to be
> mentioned that as many more states join the ranks of those allowing legal
> sale of marijuana, and, indeed, as an interstate market for legal marijuana
> sales becomes a reality, an economic phenomenon called price competition is
> likely to rear its profit-squeezing head, with the results that not only
> will sales revenues be stabilized, and, in some cases, actually reduced,
> but also the revenues available to various governmental organizations will
> also be moderated toward more realistic, and less fancifully projected,
> numerical results.
>
>
> Ken
>
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 19, 2016 at 7:11 PM, Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:
>
>> Courtesy of the *Cannabist* (Denver, Colorado) at:
>>
>> http://www.thecannabist.co/2016/09/16/california-marijuana-
>> tax-where-would-money-go/63307/
>>
>
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20160922/02c9c043/attachment-0001.html>