Pueblo County Budget Would Suffer ‘Significant’ Loss if Recreational Marijuana is Banned

Pueblo County is asking departments to produce two budget proposals: One that accounts for recreational marijuana money, & one that doesn’t.

PUEBLO — The argument for keeping the recreational marijuana industry in Pueblo County lies in the numbers, most supporters say. That includes jobs and revenue that has been funding various projects throughout Pueblo County.

While the county isn’t taking a position on the ballot question, officials do say it would be a hit to the budget.

If the ballot measure to prohibit the recreational marijuana passes in Pueblo County, county government would face at least five layoffs, according to Aimee Tihonovich, acting finance and budget director for Pueblo County.

That’s in addition to the roughly 1,300 jobs have been created in the industry since recreational cannabis was approved in Colorado. Pro-cannabis group Growing Pueblo’s Future says they’re completing an in-depth survey they believe will point to even more jobs.

Through two separate ballot questions Pueblo County was able to allocate marijuana tax money to projects that have helped start projects including Runyon Sports Complex improvements, the Southwest Chief ridership studies, state fair streetscape improvements, high school scholarships and the safe route to schools.

Those projects and more would cease to exist if the ballot question spearheaded by Citizens for a Healthy Pueblo was to pass, according to Tihonovich.

“We’ve gotten to a point where we’ve worked (that money) into our budget.” — Aimee Tihonovich, acting finance and budget director for Pueblo County

“We’ve already started many of those projects,” she said, adding that they would abruptly stop mid-project when marijuana tax revenue stops and can no longer pay for the improvements.

Beyond the cost of the community improvement projects Pueblo County received an extra $1.3 million in revenue — which went into the general fund.

That extra revenue helped keep revenues steady, Tihonovich said. Especially after the recession when there were revenue drops in other places in the budget.

“To give you some context, the Board of County Commissioners budget is around $800,000. The county attorney’s office has a budget of around $1.1 million,” Tihonovich said.

Essentially, the county would lose as much money from the general fund as it takes to fund some county departments. Public safety, which takes up a bulk of the budget, sat around $22 million in 2015.

While no department would flat out disappear if the measure passed, Tihonovich said the drop would be “significant.”

So significant, in fact, all county department have been asked to draft two budget proposals. One that would include future recreational marijuana revenue and one that doesn’t.

“We’ve gotten to a point where we’ve worked (that money) into our budget” Tihonovich said.

Because the result of the ballot question won’t be until November and budgets will be finalized in December, Tihonovich said the county wants to prepare for both scenarios.

Pueblo County also receives ‘shareback’ money from the sales tax collected on recreational marijuana. Because the county doesn’t collect the 10 percent sales tax, the state collects it and cuts a check to counties that sell recreational marijuana. Each county receives 15 percent of the 10 percent sales tax.

In 2015, Pueblo received $265,128 in shareback money. Tihonovich said that money goes to the county marijuana department, which is part of the general fund.

Pueblo County would lose that money — which averages around $23,000 per month — if the sale of recreational marijuana stopped.