Media Alert: North Dakota voters will be shown a skewed fiscal picture of pot legalization
From the Fargo Forum Editorial Board:
Another estimate comes from Dustin Gawrylow, who heads the conservative North Dakota Watchdog Network, and believes the recreational pot tax could raise from $8 million to $10 million a year. To arrive at that estimate, Gawrylow took figures from Montana and adjusted them for North Dakota’s smaller population.
Omitting a realistic revenue projection in the ballot description in effect loads the dice by making legalization of pot seem like it will become a burden to taxpayers, something that legislators can ensure won’t happen.
This budgetary “reefer madness” is part of a history that is impossible to ignore of North Dakota officials presenting fiscal notes that paint a distorted picture of the financial impacts of marijuana legalization measures.
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