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Colorado pot store employee Sam Walsh informs a first time customer about different strains of marijuana, a white board listing prices and sales tax, inside the retail shop at 3D Cannabis Center, in Denver. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper announced on Tuesday a plan to start spending nearly $100 million in marijuana tax money, the first signal of how much Colorado is reaping from recreational pot sales and what it plans to spend the money on.

(AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

Recreational marijuana means big money for the Colorado state coffers, according to budget projections released Wednesday.

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from to recreational marijuana sales in the next fiscal year. State budget writers project $1 billion in pot sales next year.

Ingold reports that the eye-popping estimates offer the first look at what marijuana sales mean for the state, which last year joined Washington in legalizing cannabis for recreational use.

Voters in November approved heavy taxes on recreational marijuana, and their impact is apparent in the projections.

Taxes and fees collected from recreational marijuana stores, which opened in January, are expected to generate in six months more than double the amount brought in by medical marijuana during the entire fiscal year.

By law, the state must put the first $40 million collected from recreational marijuana excise taxes toward school construction. But Hickenlooper's office expects to have $28 million this fiscal year and $101 million next fiscal year left over to spend on other things.

Meanwhile, Washington state officials expect to see an estimated $190 million from pot sales over a four-year period starting in mid-2015,

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A little less than half that revenue is expected from excise tax and license fees related to the marijuana market. The rest is forecast to come from retail sales tax and business taxes.

The passage of Initiative 502 in 2012 allowed the sale of marijuana to adults for recreational use at licensed stores, which are due to open by summer.

Steve Lerch, the council's executive director, said that because of concerns over local moratoriums and bans on pot sales, and general uncertainty about how the system will work, the council has made assumptions that sales won't start until June 2015.

-- Noelle Crombie