Colorado Residents to Get Extra Green, Thanks to Legal Green

DENVER, Colo.—Way back in 1992, when Colorado was flush with money from economic growth, voters amended Colorado's Constitution to enact the country's first Taxpayer Bill of Rights, often known now by its acronym TABOR. One of the effects of TABOR has been, according to Colorado's Department of the Treasury website, that "state and local governments cannot raise tax rates without voter approval and cannot spend revenues collected under existing tax rates if revenues grow faster than the rate of inflation and population growth, without voter approval." Despite the fact that TABOR has returned $2 billion to its citizens in the form of tax rebates since its enactment, its detractors (including the Department of the Treasury) point out that such funds could have been used "to pay for K-12 education, higher education, transportation, public health services, public safety and other services." As a result, in 2005, Coloradans passed Referendum C, which suspended TABOR from 2006 to 2010, and modified it going forward after that. Generally speaking, however, the amendment is still in force—and one of its effects this year is to give Coloradans a tax refund based on the astounding amount of revenue generated by legal marijuana sales in the state. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper announced his proposed state budget on November 3, and it turns out that although the law allowed the state to collect just $70 million in recreational marijuana taxes, it in fact collected about 50 percent more. Hence, under TABOR, the state is required to return that extra $30.5 million to its citizens, which may happen in one of several ways, including tax credits towards next year's taxes, a sales tax rebate, or possibly even checks mailed to citizens. However, it is possible that Hickenlooper and/or the Colorado legislature may ask voters for approval to keep the funds to use for other purposes. About the marijuana rebate, Hickenlooper said in a press release announcing the new budget, "It will be important to engage the legislature when session begins on the issue of marijuana rebates, and at this time, it would be unwise for the state to plan to spend any of those funds in advance of that discussion." Fans of marijuana's new legality were happy with the tax announcement but wary of Hickenlooper's intentions. "This is the same Governor that recently called marijuana legalization 'reckless,' so I'm not surprised that he wants to delay the marijuana tax rebate," wrote "Johnny Green" of TheWeedBlog.com. "Nonetheless, it's a great thing for Colorado taxpayers. Not only does legalization in Colorado generate jobs, boost local economies, save Colorado huge sums of money by not directing that money towards marijuana enforcement, it also is resulting in higher tax revenues than expected. Why is every state not doing this?" Yeah, California: Why is every state not doing this?