California has raked in $3 billion in taxes from legal weed sales in 2018.
Massachusetts (which is closer to New Jersey’s size) posted $384.5 million.
It certainly sounds like a lot of cash, Save Jerseyans, and it might be in a sane world. This isn’t a sane world nor a sane state, and a few hundred million dollars is actually a drop in the bucket of what Trenton spends on an annual basis. That hasn’t stopped lawmakers and activists from fighting over tax revenues (which should start rolling in today, the first day of legal N.J. pot sales) like seagulls going to war over a crust of bread dropped on the boardwalk.
Consider this:
As recently reported by Save Jersey, Phil Murphy’s 2021-2022 school aid proposal includes $312,103,851 in state aid… for the whole state? South Jersey? Camden County?
Nope. Just the City of Camden, where test scores continue to depress despite the staggering level of taxpayer investment made there over the course of decades.
Politicians touting the revenue from the forthcoming taxes derived from what they anticipate will be a billion dollar industry nevertheless continue to act as if this is going to be some sort of game changer for Trenton’s coffers. These same politicians continue to ignore the practical EXPENSES associated with legal marijuana, most notably an uptick in people driving high.
Let’s also remember that these funds aren’t dedicated, and we all know what happens when Trenton doesn’t dedicate money: if finds new ways to waste cash rather than applying the new windfall to existing priorities like debt service and pension obligations.
I said this during the initial legalization debate and I’ll say it again: political overpromising may not in of itself be a reason for you to oppose legalization. There are a lot of “ins” and “outs” to this issue.
My only word of caution: don’t pretend your old buddy Matt didn’t warn you when the streets aren’t paved with gold (or green) when we mark the first anniversary of legal pot sales in the Garden State.
