DENVER (AP) — A southern Colorado county with two
recreational marijuana stores has become the first in the state to
announce tax totals from the new industry.
Pueblo County finance
authorities announced Monday that its two shops had about $1 million in
total sales in January, producing about $56,000 in local sales taxes.
Pueblo
County is the only place between Denver and the New Mexico state line
that currently allows recreational pot stores. Its two shops were joined
by three more that opened in February.
"We recognize that the
eyes of the world are watching us, and we are proud to have erected a
robust regulatory environment in Pueblo County," County Commissioner Sal
Pace said in a statement Tuesday.
Pueblo County Clerk Gilbert
"Bo" Ortiz projected the marijuana industry will generate roughly
$670,000 in new tax revenue for his county this year. The money is a
combination of a 3.5 percent pot sales tax approved by county voters
last year, as well as "share-backs" from the state on general and
pot-specific sales taxes.
If Pueblo’s sales continue at the
January pace, the county’s pot industry will make about $11.2 million in
gross sales in 2014, Ortiz projected. The county’s total budget is
about $165 million a year.
Colorado has more than 160 licensed
recreational pot stores, all of whom had to report sales taxes Feb. 20.
Most of the stores are in Denver County, which hasn’t yet reported its
January tax haul.
Pueblo County is the first local government to
make its recreational marijuana sales tax totals public. Statewide
totals are expected early next month.
Pueblo officials joked about the pot tax haul Monday in a county finance meeting.
"The
irony is that the only new revenue we have coming in is in marijuana,
and yet we have to open a new judicial building," Commissioner Liane
"Buffie" McFadyen quipped, according to a report Tuesday in The (Pueblo)
Chieftain.
County Budget and Finance Director Cal Hamler replied, "We’re going to have to sell more weed."

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