{"id":7349,"date":"2017-04-17T07:22:23","date_gmt":"2017-04-17T07:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=2614563"},"modified":"2017-04-17T07:22:23","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T07:22:23","slug":"dispute-over-marijuana-taxing-authority-in-colorado-may-continue-despite-state-bill-designed-to-defuse-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/dispute-over-marijuana-taxing-authority-in-colorado-may-continue-despite-state-bill-designed-to-defuse-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Dispute over marijuana taxing authority in Colorado may continue \u2014 despite state bill designed to defuse it"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/dispute-over-marijuana-taxing-authority-in-colorado-may-continue-despite-state-bill-designed-to-defuse-it\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>A bill designed to resolve a high-stakes standoff over taxing authority between Colorado counties and cities when it comes to recreational marijuana sales is expected to pass out of the legislature Monday.<\/p>\n<p>But the measure, if signed into law by Gov. John Hickenlooper next month, may not stop <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2015\/05\/28\/adams-county-sued-by-three-of-its-cities-over-targeted-pot-tax\/\">a protracted legal battle between Adams County and three of its cities<\/a> from winding up at the state\u2019s high court.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/leg.colorado.gov\/bills\/hb17-1203\">House Bill 1203<\/a>, sponsored by Rep. Steve Lebsock, D-Thornton, authorizes counties to levy and collect sales tax on recreational marijuana, addressing headlong a December ruling by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2016\/12\/15\/adams-county-return-marijuana-taxes-collected-to-fund-scholarships\/\">Colorado Court of Appeals that said Adams County had no power to do so<\/a>. Under Lebsock\u2019s measure, counties in Colorado would be able to impose a pot tax in unincorporated areas without challenge but would have to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with cities and towns to tax weed there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy bill encourages counties and cities to collaborate with each other,\u201d Lebsock said.<\/p>\n<p>Adams County caught the wrath of Commerce City, Northglenn and Aurora in 2015 when <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2015\/05\/28\/adams-county-sued-by-three-of-its-cities-over-targeted-pot-tax\/\">the three cities challenged the county\u2019s decision<\/a>\u00a0to impose a 3 percent tariff on recreational pot sold throughout the county, regardless of whether municipalities had already instituted their own marijuana sales tax. The cities argued in their lawsuit that by layering an additional tax on a transaction, Adams County was putting their marijuana businesses at a competitive disadvantage to shops in nearby counties that didn\u2019t have to charge an additional levy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo statutory or constitutional authority exists for a special sales tax, that is, a sales tax on particular types of items or transactions, such as a special marijuana sales tax,\u201d the suit claims.<\/p>\n<p>The appeals court agreed with the cities, ruling that even though <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2014\/11\/19\/8-adams-county-retail-marijuana-stores-to-see-spike-in-taxes-next-year\/\">the tax was approved by Adams County voters<\/a>, the county \u201cdoes not have either constitutional or statutory authorization to impose a special sales tax on retail marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lebsock said he hopes his measure serves as an acceptable workaround while Adams County continues its legal fight with its cities. Jim Siedlecki, a spokesman for Adams County, said, \u201cWe are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2017\/01\/04\/adams-county-pot-tax-colorado-supreme-court\/\">still pursuing the case with the Supreme Court<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lebsock said the cooperative approach to recreational pot sales tax collection has already been demonstrated in Pueblo County, where last month the county and the city of Pueblo agreed to split a 3.5 percent county tax on pot. The city will get the lion\u2019s share \u2014 85 percent \u2014 of the proceeds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would behoove Adams County to collaboratively work with the cities in the county so that the county can have a special marijuana tax,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Jodi Hardee, a communications specialist with Commerce City, said the city \u201csupported this carefully negotiated and practical legislation that preserves fiscal fair play by guarding against unauthorized taxation,\u201d but she said as far as negotiating tax-sharing agreements with Adams County goes, the city won\u2019t make any decisions on how to proceed until the court case has been resolved.<\/p>\n<p>Aurora city attorney\u00a0Mike Hyman was less charitable, saying, \u201cI don\u2019t believe the city is interested in working out a deal with Adams County to tax our pot shops.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is what should have been done in the first place because it has been our position all along that the county did not have the statutory authority to levy a tax on marijuana,\u201d Hyman said of HB 1203. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly a much better way of doing things than to have a county spring a tax upon you without consulting with you first, which is what Adams County did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The county has been collecting the tax since it first went into effect in July 2015. It has continued to do so even after the appeals court decision in December, Siedlecki said. He said more than $1.5 million has been collected so far and \u201cis tracked separately\u201d in the county\u2019s general fund.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\" \/>\n<p>The bill in the legislature would be\u00a0\u201ca great resolution to the issue,\u201d Kevin Bommer, deputy director of the Colorado Municipal League. \u201cIt\u2019s not my call on what the cities should do next, but the door is open for collaboration, and taxpayers are protected from policy that would allow double taxation. It is well-crafted tax policy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chip Taylor, executive director of Colorado Counties Inc., said Adams County feels like it has the legal authority to impose the tax and is defending that position all the way to the high court, which hasn\u2019t yet decided whether to review the case. He said city residents still get services from county agencies, including the district attorney\u2019s office and the human services department, so a county tax on marijuana could be seen as reasonable.<\/p>\n<p>But he understands how a tax on one type of product, such as recreational pot, may run into choppy legal waters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI also recognize that a differential tax on a single product raises its own unique issues,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lawmakers are expected to pass a bill Monday to stop a standoff over local marijuana taxes, but that may not stop a protracted legal battle between Adams County and three of its cities from winding up at the state&#8217;s high court. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7081,6907,7082,6811,6857,6897,2097,6813,6848,77,5577,5667,9,5019,441,7083,1,3,2379,61,1736],"tags":[7084,6909,7085,6816,6859,6898,4665,6818,6851,2655,5580,5673,5022,3015,7086,4974],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7349"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7349\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}