In January, for the first time since legal sales began, Alaska's commercial cannabis growers paid more than $1 million in state taxes, according to officials.
Eighty-one marijuana cultivators paid $1,040,512 in taxes during the first month of 2018, said Kelly Mazzei, excise tax supervisor at the Alaska Department of Revenue.
Alaska marijuana growers pay the state tax of $50 per ounce of cannabis bud, and $15 an ounce for other parts of the plant, like the trimmings of leaves and stems.
A total of 1,061 pounds of marijuana, and 797 of trim, were sold wholesale in January.
This may only be of interest to those of us living up here in the Last Frontier, but I have been predicting for awhile that the pot industry would start to be a real source of revenue for the state and I am glad to see that is finally happening.
It of course will never replace the oil tax revenue, but it is at least one tax source that will not be undermined by the switch to renewable resources.
Which by the way could be even another profitable source of tax revenue if lawmakers would pull their lips of the asses of oil barons long enough to notice.
We are way behind finding revenue sources outside of the oil industry, and it is going to get ugly up here if we do not become more proactive.
Source http://ift.tt/2CXAW4n
