The governor of Pennsylvania is proposing to legalize and tax adult-use marijuana as part of his 2023-2024 budget request, estimating $188 million in annual revenue from cannabis by 2028.
As several lawmakers are circulating cosponsorship memos about plans to introduce legalization legislation this session, Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) is making the administrative push for the reform.
The executive budget that he released on Tuesday proposes to impose a 20 percent tax “on the wholesale price of [marijuana] products sold through the regulated framework of the production and sales system, once legalized.”
Assuming that sales begin on January 1, 2025, the budget estimates that the state would generate about $16 million in cannabis tax revenue that year, increasing to $64 million in 2026, $132.6 million in 2027 and $188 million in 2028.
Shapiro, who previously served as Pennsylvania’s attorney general, campaigned on legalization during last year’s gubernatorial election and has also talked about his intentions to expand on his predecessor’s work in granting clemency to those who’ve been criminalized over marijuana.
Shapiro’s proposed budget legislation, while including expected revenue from legalization, does not contain any provisions to actually effectuate the policy change. That will be up to lawmakers.
The prospects of
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