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The campaign backing a measure to impose new taxes on recreational marijuana has out-raised tax opponents by more than 17-to-1 and outspent opponents by 22-to-1, a Denver Post analysis of campaign finance reports shows. The Committee for Responsible Regulation, the campaign group formed to support Proposition AA on this year's ballot, has raised about $67,000 in monetary and in-kind contributions as of its most recent finance filing earlier this week. The group opposed to the tax, simply named No Over Taxation, has raised about $3,800 in monetary and in-kind contributions, according to its filings.
Tax proponents have also vastly out-spent opponents, but the large majority of the proponent's expenditures have gone toward paying consultants and fund-raising expenses. The Committee for Responsible Regulation has spent about $52,000, with nearly $50,000 of that falling under the category of "Consultant and Professional Services." Among the consulting expenses are $14,000 to the political firm RBI Strategies, $8,000 to marijuana activist Steve Fox, $8,000 to communications professional Joe Megyesy and $10,000 to the law firm Vicente Sederberg. All of that money – $40,000 in total – went to people and groups that worked on the successful campaign to legalize marijuana, which gave rise to the tax vote.
Fund-raising expenses account for about another $1,600 of the proponent's expenditures. Aside from $4,997 spent on a website and $245.29 spent on a podium and podium signs, the proponent's filings do not reflect any expenditures on outreach efforts. The proponent's biggest donor is Henry van Ameringen, a New York philanthropist and heir to a flavors and fragrances fortune. He donated $15,000 to the campaign earlier this month, according to the campaign's filings. The United Food and Commercial Workers union and the medical-marijuana dispensary company Beyond Broadway both donated $10,000. It does not appear that the pro-tax campaign has received any contributions from members of Smart Colorado, a group concerned about the impacts of marijuana legalization that supported a short-lived effort at the state Capitol to repeal legalization if the tax measure fails.
By contrast, the tax opposition campaign is a small-time affair. Its biggest single donor is the man at its center – marijuana attorney Rob Corry, who has donated $600 in direct and in-kind contributions. About $2,650 of direct and in-kind contributions come from donors reporting their address as that of Corry's law firm. The No Over Taxation campaign also reports what might be a first in campaign-finance history: the in-kind contribution of $1,250 worth of marijuana for the campaign's free-joint giveaways in Denver and Boulder. (The campaign reported the value after a complaint by Colorado Ethics Watch.) The amount is roughly equal to what tax supporters paid to the Denver Beer Company for "room rental for event including beverages," for a fund-raiser earlier this month that tax opponents crashed.
Proposition AA would impose a statewide 15 percent excise tax on wholesale recreational marijuana transactions and an initial 10 percent tax on recreational marijuana sales at the retail level. Local governments, such as Denver and Boulder, are also considering their own special sales taxes on recreational marijuana. Consumers would also have to pay the uniform statewide 2.9 percent sales tax. The taxes are expected to add as much as $11 in taxes to a typical pot purchase. Amendment 64, the measure that legalized recreational marijuana in Colorado, proposes the excise tax and specifies that money from it go to school construction. But, because of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, actually imposing the tax requires a separate vote.
News Hawk - The General @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Denverpost.com
Author: John Ingold
Contact: Contact Us - The Denver Post
Website: Marijuana tax supporters vastly out-raise and out-spend tax opponents
Tax proponents have also vastly out-spent opponents, but the large majority of the proponent's expenditures have gone toward paying consultants and fund-raising expenses. The Committee for Responsible Regulation has spent about $52,000, with nearly $50,000 of that falling under the category of "Consultant and Professional Services." Among the consulting expenses are $14,000 to the political firm RBI Strategies, $8,000 to marijuana activist Steve Fox, $8,000 to communications professional Joe Megyesy and $10,000 to the law firm Vicente Sederberg. All of that money – $40,000 in total – went to people and groups that worked on the successful campaign to legalize marijuana, which gave rise to the tax vote.
Fund-raising expenses account for about another $1,600 of the proponent's expenditures. Aside from $4,997 spent on a website and $245.29 spent on a podium and podium signs, the proponent's filings do not reflect any expenditures on outreach efforts. The proponent's biggest donor is Henry van Ameringen, a New York philanthropist and heir to a flavors and fragrances fortune. He donated $15,000 to the campaign earlier this month, according to the campaign's filings. The United Food and Commercial Workers union and the medical-marijuana dispensary company Beyond Broadway both donated $10,000. It does not appear that the pro-tax campaign has received any contributions from members of Smart Colorado, a group concerned about the impacts of marijuana legalization that supported a short-lived effort at the state Capitol to repeal legalization if the tax measure fails.
By contrast, the tax opposition campaign is a small-time affair. Its biggest single donor is the man at its center – marijuana attorney Rob Corry, who has donated $600 in direct and in-kind contributions. About $2,650 of direct and in-kind contributions come from donors reporting their address as that of Corry's law firm. The No Over Taxation campaign also reports what might be a first in campaign-finance history: the in-kind contribution of $1,250 worth of marijuana for the campaign's free-joint giveaways in Denver and Boulder. (The campaign reported the value after a complaint by Colorado Ethics Watch.) The amount is roughly equal to what tax supporters paid to the Denver Beer Company for "room rental for event including beverages," for a fund-raiser earlier this month that tax opponents crashed.
Proposition AA would impose a statewide 15 percent excise tax on wholesale recreational marijuana transactions and an initial 10 percent tax on recreational marijuana sales at the retail level. Local governments, such as Denver and Boulder, are also considering their own special sales taxes on recreational marijuana. Consumers would also have to pay the uniform statewide 2.9 percent sales tax. The taxes are expected to add as much as $11 in taxes to a typical pot purchase. Amendment 64, the measure that legalized recreational marijuana in Colorado, proposes the excise tax and specifies that money from it go to school construction. But, because of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, actually imposing the tax requires a separate vote.
News Hawk - The General @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Denverpost.com
Author: John Ingold
Contact: Contact Us - The Denver Post
Website: Marijuana tax supporters vastly out-raise and out-spend tax opponents
