marijuana tax school funding formula in colorado to be revisited

Two Colorado legislators, Representatives Cole Wist and Dave Young, are calling for a change in the amount of marijuana sales tax revenue used for school construction.
 
As currently established, up to $40 million in that revenue goes to the state’s Building Excellent Schools Today program.
 
The BEST program was established in 2008 to provide grants to public schools for replacing, rebuilding, and repairing facilities.
 
Since its founding, BEST has given out $1.7 billion in matching grants to more than 300 individual schools in Colorado.
 
The new legislation is calling for marijuana sales tax revenue to be increased by an additional $39 million for fiscal year 2018-19, and another $43 million for fiscal year 2019-20.
 
A final vote on the legislators’ proposal has not yet been taken. The regular 2018 session of the Colorado State Legislature will wrap up business on May 9.

By Garry Boulard