What a mess. With state finances up in smoke, some state lawmakers hope a lot of toke will help close a budget hole. Under current Connecticut law marijuana is legal for medicinal use and decriminalized for small amounts. Under a considered measure the state would legalize the sale of pot and tax it.
Lawmakers are also looking at casino expansion to generate more revenues. CT Mirror reporter Keith Phaneuf has more:
By legalizing the sale of marijuana, and licensing and taxing those transactions, the Democratic plan expects to raise $60 million next fiscal year.
The plan would authorizes one additional casino, but does not address what process Democrats would favor to create this facility.
The Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes, which operate the Foxwoods Resorts and Mohegan Sun casinos in southeastern Connecticut, are seeking authorization to open a third casino outside of tribal land in north central Connecticut.
This move is essential, they say, to mitigate the loss of patronage they expect to face when from MGM Resorts International, which is developing an $800 million casino in Springfield, Mass.
State government, which currently receives $267 million in video slot revenues from the two southeastern Connecticut casinos, as part of a sharing agreement that dates back to the early 1990s, expects to see that revenue stream drop.
Full story here.
It does not surprise me . They are a group of elected incompetents elected by assholes
You would be 100% correct if you were the only one who voted.
Andy, This is a good thing to generate millions in revenues. Alcohol has more debilitating effects on all areas of the body. Marijuana has many medicinal effects. People with eye disease, epilepsy,cancer, and bodily pain benefit from Marijuana use. Everyone knows that one glass of wine has been found beneficial to your heart. A glass of beer may help with your cold sores. Other than that. Alcohol causes bodily harm. Harmful to your liver and kidneys. For some strange reason, people seem to glamorize alcohol consumption. There are package stores on every corner and more bars than you can count. Alcoholism is on the rise. I wouldn’t be so critical of those looking to legalize it and make millions in taxes. It will certainly hurt the illegal marijuana coming into this Country from Mexico, Columbia and Panama. An addictive personality wil always find a new way to get high. New alcoholics join the ranks every day. As a gateway drug? Again, an addictive personality will always be looking for the next great high. People smoking pot do not generally leave a bar at 2 am drunk as a skunk and driving home. I do not think the people I vote for are incompetent and I support those who need Marijuana for medicinal purposes and for those that use it for recreation, Go for it. Saturday Night Live will be that much funnier. It has been 40 years since I attended parties at URI where you’d get high just walking through the dorms. Lets just look at as a revenue source. Get off the high horse of the holy rollers that drink and drive and think this is so awful. The girl scouts know that they more than triple their sales by selling outside of a Marijuana retailer. This is huge business! It will become legal- Connecticut needs the money sooner rather than later.
Steven, I agree with you 100%.
But Stevie my boy. What if you are wrong.
Marijuana may have some medicinal value but there is still a lot to be learned over long term use.
And the one thing that biize has taught us is that you cannot but that genie back in the bottle.
Bob how many Decades do YOU need? Cigarettes cause cancer and still available to anyone over 18 ! Get real and wake up. The foods you eat cause Cancer! Made with Chemicals. Marijuana- seriously/ Smoke it or not- Lets make some money.
Bob the only benefit of letting the Genie out of the bottle is that The State will make money. Marijuana isn’t disappearing anytime son. Kids have found so many new ways to get stoned from items readily available and over the counter at a local pharmacy. Enough debate already. It’s like talking about Gays in the military and Gay marriage. Let it go!
As
As a trump voter who usually voted democrat I took a chance on trump simply because he was not a politician and Hillary being phony but if I had to revote I would not vote for trump again. Imagine if our black president did this he would be impeached already. Trump should be impeached and I will never vote for a republican again tried something different by voting republican and the party has disappointed full of people who don’t like minorities just because not because of policies.
I have NEVER voted for a Republican since Ronald Reagan. we got burned once before and never again. The Republican Party that many of us knew through Stewart McKinney is “gone with the wind.”
So it’s your fault hat asshole is POTUS? Thanks, donj.
The fact that marijuana is a schedule 1 narcotic is ridiculous and a remnant of when our government was much more racist. I have never smoked the stuff but do not see the harm, especially when you compare it to alcohol. Grow it, cut it, dry it and smoke it, no problem. It is organic, compared to other hard drugs that need a chemical process to be created (Heroin for example) It has many practical medical applications and can be a huge revenue boost. Connecticut has already decriminalized it, time to take it one step further.
Colorado Department of Revenue show that marijuana sales by government-licensed stores in that state totaled nearly $1 billion in 2015, making marijuana almost as big as craft beer by that measure. Marijuana sales raised $135 million in taxes and fees for the state last year. Any questions?
Why yes, how is the tax and spend state of CT going to over estimate and overspend this revenue?
The State of Connecticut needs to UNDERESTIMATE revenues and OVERESTIMATE Expenditures. With that policy,we will no lo
nger have these last minute budget emergencies.
wait a minute…overestimating expenditures and underestimating revenues is a bad thing. That is what The State of Connecticut has been doing
OMG..let’s try it again… underestimating expenditures and underestimating revenues are a bad combination. And that is what State Government has been doing.
Good people dont smoke marijuana
Tell that to Montel Williams, former talk show host.
Good people or bad people do a lot of different things. As Pope Francis asked….”Who Am I To Judge?”
Good people are allowed to operate growing facilities and dispensaries. They are now drug dealers.
Aspirin is a drug
Sounds like a plan with a hidden agenda. One side-effect of smoking Marijuana is forgetfulness. How many weed smokers will forget about a primary or election taking place on that very day? How many will forget or fail to pay attention to the horrible job done by their elected officials? Could it be that many of them smoke Marijuana and forget that they’re supposed to represent their constituents among other things?
that’s happening right now. I wonder what might be the present excuse.
Legalize, tax, profit and move on.
There is a loophole you know. In order to participate in the medicinal weed program one would first need a doctors approval. Then one must pay a Fee to the state for a participant ID. The ID is used to purchase weed at the dispensary where they get the weed in it’s proper container. It’s allot more expensive to buy from the dispensary. Now there is and will always be a Black market where one can buy weed just about anywhere. Now after one is done smoking the first purchased amount, You have the container or packaging of the dispensary purchased weed. The black market weed is of good quality too. Why pay more and pay taxes when I can buy the black market weed and put it in the container or packaging I got from my first dispensary purchase? how would a cop know that the weed is not the same weed I purchased from the dispensary. I understand the dispensaries are having a though time making a profit. I wonder if the loophole is catching on. For the record I did reveal this loophole here over a year ago.
why should anybody care what another individual does as long as those actions don’t harm others?
New revenues…..taxing marijuana and highway use with electronic tolls? Budget cuts…..what, where?? What is sacred to the legislature and to the Governor? It’s a heck of a learning curve, isn’t it? Where does the City of Bridgeport funding from the State fit in? Time will tell.
Lennie, would you check the post from John Marshall Lee and see if he’s ok because JML never would submit something so few words.
Let’s just legalize pot and get it over with. Jeff Sessions be damned. Alcohol and tobacco can be seriously argued as being more dangerous than pot.
The governor and the legislature have been grappling with the morality of building another casino to generate revenue. Acoording to the hypocritical puritans in Hartford gambling is less of a sin than smoking grass. Marijuana has at least 100 proven medical benefits. The opportunistic cutouts elected to serve the interests of the people the state of Connecticut would do well o see the windfall reaped by the state of Colorado.
I can see it now,Joe gathering the press again for a new pot dispensary “ground breaking’at Steel Point….”We are very happy to announce a new marijuana dispensary right here at Steel Point”..lol