Lawmaker Wants Michigan Pot Smokers to Fix Roads

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Michigan’s roads have gone to pot.

After voters spoke loudly earlier this month when they trounced a $1.27 billion sales tax plan to fix the crumbling roads, a western Michigan lawmaker thinks it’s high time his colleagues wrap their heads around this: Legalizing and taxing pot is the only answer to the state’s funding and infrastructure crisis that makes any kind of long-term economic sense.

Rep. Brandon Dillon, D-Grand Rapids, is critical of the currently favored GOP plan that takes away the Earned Income Tax Credit for the working poor and potentially eliminates more than 214,000 state tourism jobs, WNEM-TV reports.

Not only does plan fix the roads on the backs of working class Michiganders while making it virtually pain free for corporations, Dillon said, it doesn’t address a fundamental problem:

The whole plan hinges one-time revenue gained by moving money around, while ignoring the need for a sustainable funding source.

That’s what makes legalizing, regulating and taxing marijuana the best solution, he said. 

Michiganders have already sent strong signals they’re loosening up about pot. More than a dozen communities have voted to decriminalize adult possession of small amounts of marijuana for recreational purposes, and medical cannabis has been legal for several years.

Related:

• Not Everyone Must Get Stoned (But Votes Mean More People Can)
• Lawmaker: Best Way to Control Youth Access to Pot is to Legalize It

The community referendums take the fear of criminal prosecution out of pot smoking, but don’t provide for its open trade and taxation. Places like Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon, where voters approved recreational pot on statewide ballot measures, are or are poised to start raking in the money – a lot of it – from their new cash crop.

Its first year of legalized pot sales in 2014, Colorado took in about $63 million in tax revenue, and an additional $13 million on licenses and fees on $699 million in combined sales of medical and recreational cannabis.

Money like that would fill a lot of potholes in Michigan – and a recent poll suggests voters in the state may be ready to get behind the idea.

A Market Research Group poll of 600 likely voters found more than half think it should be legal for adults to smoke pot – and for the government to tax it.

Also on Patch:

• Michigan City Blooming With Potholes (And Not Just Gaping Craters)

In an op-ed on MLive.com, Dillon said taxing marijuana sales would create a consistent, permanent revenue source for road improvements, as well as bring about long overdue drug policy changes to keep current with quickly changing attitudes about marijuana.

Justin Weigandt, who operates a indoor and outdoor gardening supply business, GrowMart, in Saginaw, told WNEM that he supports legalizing and taxing pot to fix Michigan’s roads.

“Why not? People are doing it anyway,” he said. “So, why not make money on it?”

Tell Us:

• Would you support legalizing, regulating and taxing cannabis specifically to build a road fund? Why or why not?