Pueblo City Council Gives First OK to Two Cannabis Ballot Questions, Complicating the November Ballot

Three ballot questions. One by signature. Two by council proposal.

The future of Pueblo’s recreational marijuana industry is very uncertain as the clock winds down to the November election. Pueblo City Council approved the first presentation of two ballot questions Monday night that are rooted in opposite visions of which course the recreational marijuana industry should be like within city limits.

Public hearing for both questions will be Aug. 8. at city council. The November ballot will be finalized by the end of August.

The only recreational shops exist outside the city’s boundaries. One ballot question, 2B, asks city voters whether recreational stores should be permitted within city limits.

The question comes from the city, but another question asking to ban recreational marijuana has been placed on the November ballot through voter signature by Citizens for a Healthy Pueblo, which has been making a push to prohibit recreational stores in all of Pueblo County.

Citizen for a Healthy Pueblo’s attorney Daniel Oldenburg told council during public comments at the beginning of Monday night’s meeting that it makes little sense for the city to present a ballot question on top of the question Citizens for a Healthy Pueblo has already placed on the ballot.

Councilman Bob Schilling asked Oldenburg if his comment was a ‘veiled threat.’ But Oldenburg replied no, it was just a concern from his group.

“Our concern is that there are two questions,” Oldenburg told PULP following the meeting, adding that the wording on the questions could potentially be confused.

Oldenburg said he would be out of town for the Aug. 8 public hearing.

Citizens for a Healthy Pueblo are asking voters to completely prohibit retail stores, manufacturing, testing facilities and growing operations.

“We worked hard on making (our question) legally sufficient,” he said.

That makes three total recreational marijuana questions on the November ballot for Pueblo city voters.

Under Amendment 64, which legalized recreational marijuana in Colorado, ballot questions regarding the permission of recreational marijuana industry can only be made in even-numbered years.

Council president Steve Nawrocki told Oldenburg that council was seeking a 2016 ballot question long before Citizens for a Healthy Pueblo was collecting signatures.

The second question approved by council is based on the premise that the recreational marijuana will eventually be sold in the City of Pueblo. Question 2C would establish a 4.3 percent sales and use tax on marijuana sales at recreational shops.

There is already a 8 percent excise tax on cultivation, testing and production of marijuana, but no marijuana-related sales tax esists. Pueblo voters turned down special tax language in previous ordinance proposals.

Pueblo City Attorney Dan Kogosvek told PULP it seems to him that it’d be unlikely the three questions would have different results in November, but in the case one ballot question prohibits the recreational marijuana industry and another allows it, the ordinance with the most votes stands.

Kogosvek added that it’d be likely a split decision would land in court for a judge to decide.

“It’s going to be complex no matter what,” he said.