Ireland: Lets just say no to another tax on sin – Aspen Daily News

I cant support raising the tax on marijuana. Its not that all taxes are bad, but Amendment 119 got my no vote last week because some taxes make things worse instead of better.

The proposed tax is intended to generate up to $137 million annually to fund education of a privatized form, tutoring and out-of-school education with some of the benefit likely to help disadvantaged kids who were kept home to avoid COVID-19.

That sounds good. Low-income children should have access to the kind of help that upper-income families routinely provide for their students. The real issue, for me, is simple. Why are we creating an independent, privatized education system when we already have an underfunded state system that could provide the same programs and services under local control?

Colorado is and has been a bottom-feeder in the per-pupil rankings for many decades. The anti-tax crusaders managed to cripple school funding 30 years ago with the Taxpayer Bill of Rights amendment, or TABOR, that requires a broad array of restrictions on state and local taxation and spending.

The voters tried to fix that with a constitutional amendment in the year 2000, requiring that the state allocate an additional 1% per year above inflation for 10 years and at the rate of inflation thereafter.

Alas, thereafter never came about as the legislature, with the lovely Republicans in control, rejiggered per-pupil spending to avoid funding education as required by Amendment 23. The result was and is that local district support fell behind by $1 billion or more annually. The $1 billion negative factor remains under the moniker Budget Stabilization Factor. Colorados per-pupil funding is stabilized for sure, being between 37th and 46th in the nation. Welcome to Texas North.

So, we have an underfunded public system that has forced hundreds of districts to adopt a class schedule of four days a week. Malicious side effect: Some kids in truly low-income districts lose weight because they get only eight instead of 10 school meals per week. Believe it or not, we have many rural counties where minimum wage provides a family with only $15,000 a year for housing, clothing, food and transportation.

Taxing pot is attractive to politicos because it falls on sinners like myself who are a minority of the population and often derided as slackers and potheads. To be sure, I cant remember the last time I smoked a joint, not because the weed here is good enough to wipe out my memory but because my use is confined to CBD, an anti-inflammatory that is activated by a small fraction of THC, the fun ingredient in marijuana.

Not coincidentally, the states nonpartisan legislative council notes that this tax is regressive in that it hits low-income people proportionately harder than upper-income users. Instead of taxing all of us evenly for education enhancements or, God forbid, taxing the wealthiest at a higher rate, this amendment proves irony is not dead by placing the heaviest burden on those with the least.

Sound familiar? Private space programs for the zillionaires, more tax burdens at the bottom. If that doesnt ring a bell, maybe Kyrsten Sinema does.

One of the great things about local control and public education is that we (the people and taxpayers) therefore can elect people who support fact- and science-based education. Amendment 119 allows grants to out-of-state corporations, faith-based schools and home-schoolers who are not accountable to the public. Do we really want a system that privately teaches the Holocaust as a mere allegation to be refuted, American History as a fairy tale and slavery as a lucky break for those in chains?

When I and others initially supported legalizing marijuana, we hoped it would wipe out the illegal dope-dealer network living the capitalist-libertarian dream that often ended in violence and corruption. Alas, the black market of drugs and money remains. Making legal pot ever more expensive will keep the black market alive. Jail space, law officers, courts and public defenders are already in short supply reinvigorating the illegal dope trade wont help.

What we should be doing is talking about how to fully fund education, not out-of-state corporations who may well teach the Gospel of Wealth or the glory of being a slave rather than the truth. In the meantime, a no vote on Amendment 119 is a good start toward doing the right thing.

Mick Ireland hopes to return to substitute teaching next semester and thinks dope dealers can get a real job. Contact him at Mick@sopris.net.

Read the original here:

Ireland: Lets just say no to another tax on sin - Aspen Daily News