Pot tax revenues are looking too good to pass up.

Illinois collected about $10 million in taxes on marijuana during January, the first month of legal recreational pot sales in the state. At that rate, Illinois is on track to blow past initial estimates that marijuana would generate $28 million in tax revenue in the first six months after legalization.

An eye-popping total, to be sure, and also one that might catch the eye of suburbs that declined to join the marijuana gold rush. About three dozen towns in metropolitan Chicago, including Arlington Heights, Naperville, Oak Brook and Tinley Park, have banned recreational weed sales within their boundaries. The state law that legalized recreational sales starting Jan. 1 also allowed municipalities to opt out.

In many cases, town councils bowed to opponents worried about the potential impact of pot sales on traffic, crime, addiction and a town's reputation. Such concerns apparently outweighed any expected fiscal benefit from marijuana tax collections.

Now it appears those towns may not have fully appreciated what they were giving up. So far at least, recreational pot is proving more lucrative than expected. Illinois retailers rang up $40 million in recreational weed sales last month, according to the Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation. That far exceeds first-month sales in Michigan, Nevada, Colorado and Oregon.

As sales outstripped expectations, so did tax collections. Illinois imposes a tax of 10 percent to 25 percent on retail sales of pot, depending on how much THC it contains, on top of basic sales tax. There's also a 7 percent tax on transactions between marijuana cultivators and retailers. During the first month of sales, recreational pot generated $7.3 million in weed-specific taxes and $3.1 million in basic sales tax dollars for the state.

Come July, suburbs that allow pot sales will get to imbibe. That's when Illinois will begin collecting an additional weed sales tax of up to 3 percent on behalf of municipalities that permit weed shops.

Based on January sales, the local weed levy looks sure to generate serious money for local governments. Even before January totals came in, Naperville officials figured the city would have pocketed $500,000 in tax revenue from a single pot store. Early sales figures suggest the haul could be even greater.

No, pot sales taxes alone won't balance a municipal budget. But they represent a potential new revenue source for towns grappling with rising costs and increasing pressure from residents fed up with soaring property bills. Towns that continue to ban pot sales will forgo that revenue, while nearby burgs happily scoop it up.

How long will Naperville be content to watch pot buyers cross Route 59 to stock up in Aurora? Will Libertyville tire of seeing neighboring Mundelein cash in on marijuana taxes?

Hard to say. From a purely fiscal standpoint, municipalities have plenty of incentive to reconsider pot bans. Trouble is, many of the same residents crying out for property tax relief also object to pot stores.

Naperville presents an interesting test case. After narrowly voting to ban pot sales last summer, the city council also decided to put the question of pot sales to residents in a referendum. On March 17, they'll decide whether to lift the ban. Similar measures are on the ballot in half a dozen other suburbs.

A big question for local officials and voters is the sustainability of last month's pot sales surge. In other words, does strong demand during the first month of legal sales accurately foretell long-term sales and related tax revenue?

Early buying likely reflected some pent-up demand and experimentation. Sales may settle in at lower levels as the legal market matures. Market watchers also wonder if supply shortages propped up retail pot prices in the first month of sales. Supply may rise as more marijuana growers enter the market, putting downward pressure on prices and tax revenue.

Another factor stoking demand in Illinois is the continuing prohibition of recreational pot in adjacent states. Sales to out-of-staters represented 22 percent of total sales at Illinois pot stores last month. If Indiana and Wisconsin join the legalization trend, their pot smokers will have less reason to cross the state line.

Towns trying to gauge the likely upside of dropping weed bans also should consider the impact of other municipalities doing the same. As more suburbs opt in, the share of pot revenues available to each could shrink.

It will be interesting to see how towns respond as the potential tax revenue from marijuana becomes clearer. Eventually, however, local bans on weed shops seem likely to go the way of local prohibitions on alcohol sales, as legalization eases the stigma associated with marijuana.