Cannabis tax revenues bring $31 million to Arizona community colleges

Ten community colleges in Arizona recently received $31 million in recreational cannabis tax funds, the Associated Press reports. Arizona’s recreational cannabis law provides that one-third of the 16 percent excise tax is reserved for community colleges each year. Any college can use the funds to support “workforce development, STEM and certain other educational programs.” The rest of the taxpayers’ money is earmarked for public safety, transportation and criminal justice.

Cochise College received $2 million and plans to put it into its First Responder Academy, according to its president, JD Rottweiler. “It wouldn’t be happening at the level that we’re capable of now because of those dollars coming in,” Rottweiler said. “It really allows us to support this initiative and move it forward faster at a time when our frontline workers are desperately needed.”

Maricopa Community College is one of the largest in the state and was awarded $17.2 million. It plans to use these funds to fund the operations of its GateWay Community College, which offers many certificate programs in a variety of fields.

Arizona Western College received $1.7 million, and spokeswoman Mandy Heil says the funds will be used to upgrade its facilities, including “e-gaming, cybersecurity and related health,” and also plans to turn an old dorm into a “residential – learning facility.”

The remaining colleges received the following funding: Pima Community College ($3.9 million), Yavapai College ($1.4 million), Central Arizona College ($1.3 million), Mohave Community College ( $1.1 million), Eastern Arizona College ($1 million), Coconino Community College ($930,000), Northland Pioneer College ($900,000), and the Provisional Community College Districts of Gila and Santa Cruz County ($228,000 $ and $112,000 respectively).

Together, these Arizona colleges received just over $31 million, almost the same amount ($30 million) that Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey proposed on Feb. 2 for federal funding for “workforce accelerators.” would have. “Arizona’s community colleges are an integral part of the engine that drives our economic dynamism. And boy, we have momentum in Arizona,” Ducey said. “Arizona community colleges have been not only the secret sauce, but also the secret weapon for our transformed economy.” The Workforce Accelerators will “form a network of vocational training centers to prepare Arizonans for the jobs of the next generation.”

This is the first full year of legal cannabis sales in Arizona. The voting initiative was voted on in November 2020 and the program began on January 21, 2021. Overall, Arizona residents spent $1.4 billion on recreational cannabis in 2021, according to the Arizona Department of Revenue, with about 650 Millions of US dollars in recreational cannabis sales. Arizona’s medicinal cannabis program has been in existence for over a decade, surpassing only recreational sales in every but two months of 2021. As of November 2021, recreational sales tax just surpassed medical sales tax at $61.6 for recreational and $61.4 for medical purposes. Then, in December 2021, Arizona raised $63.8 million in recreational sales compared to $53.5 million in medicinal cannabis sales.

Arizona was also recently included in Americans for Safe Access’ annual State of the States Report. The ASA report again highlights the progress, or lack thereof, in each state regarding recreational and medicinal cannabis programs. No states received an A that year, and only two received a B (Maine) and a B minus (Illinois), but a large majority of states received some form of C grade, including Arizona with a C minus. According to the Phoenix New Times, Arizona’s cannabis programs are of average size. “Arizona’s C rating puts it in the middle of the field, but in the top half, with 18 state programs better, 32 worse, and four others equal.” The ASA says weaknesses include state program management. However, he received better grades for “patient rights and civil protection”, “consumer protection and product safety” and “access to medicines”.