美国国家公共电台 NPR Marijuana Pays For Schools In Colorado — Kind Of — But How Will It Help Maine?

Marijuana Pays For Schools In Colorado — Kind Of — But How Will It Help Maine? 

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Voters in Maine and a few other states are weighing whether or not to legalize recreational marijuana this November. One factor that could tip the vote is the possibility that millions of dollars in tax revenue from retail² pot shops could be at stake. Now, marijuana has been legal in Colorado since 2014, and the state has earned tax benefits because of it. We sent Patty Wight of Maine Public Broadcasting and Luke Runyon of member station KUNC in Colorado to examine how the money is being spent and what Maine might expect.

PATTY WIGHT, BYLINE³: Maine, like a lot of other states, could always use more revenue, so that possibility of millions is potentially enticing⁴. But it's unclear here how that money would be spent, so it's got some voters wondering, like Erin McGee Ferrell. I met her in downtown Portland. She's a foster parent. And she says that's one state program that could use more funding.

ERIN MCGEE FERRELL: And I know that there's a lot of problems in terms of needing more money for health issues and people who are addicted⁵ to opioids. I mean, there's such a lack of money for the children and for health issues.

WIGHT: And that's a similar question that the mayor of Portland has, Ethan Strimling. But specifically, he wants to know - how is that money going to be dedicated⁶ to individual communities?

ETHAN STRIMLING: All we have at the local level is property taxes, but it would be great if some of the revenue that's generated from this legalization could stay right in the community where it's having the most impact.

WIGHT: In other words, to fund substance abuse programs to help offset⁷ any of the negative impacts of legalization. So the question for Colorado, Luke, is where's the money from pot going?

LUKE RUNYON, BYLINE: Well, it's really a mixed bag here. We have a slew⁸ of local and state taxes on retail marijuana. Pretty much everybody through the entire supply chain is paying into the system. So that's growers, retail shops, licensing⁹ fees. And state money, for the most part, is going towards school maintenance and construction, so paying for things like new roofs for schools and HVAC systems.

WIGHT: So pot's paying for schools in Colorado.

RUNYON: Well, kind of. To get a better picture on this, I talked to Chris Stiffler. He's an economist¹⁰ with the Colorado Fiscal¹¹ Institute. They're a non-partisan think tank. And he really cautions against getting too excited about marijuana tax money.

CHRIS STIFFLER: We like to talk about it as if you were walking home today and you found a $20 bill on the ground, right? You wouldn't go home and buy a new car or a new house. But you would maybe go out for a Chipotle burrito with guacamole and a margarita, right?

RUNYON: It can be kind of a problem here in Colorado because when voters were considering legal marijuana, some of them thought that this was going to be a huge amount of money for education.

STIFFLER: They want to know why they're not getting new schools, why they're not getting more teachers, why they're not getting better roads because they were promised so many marijuana dollars was going to fix and basically pay for a lot of the things that really drive their communities.

WIGHT: So it sounds like it's kind of a drop in the bucket for the state budget. But how about local communities?

RUNYON: Well, that seems to be where marijuana tax money can actually make more of a difference. So take Edgewater, Colo. It's a really extreme example of this. It's a small town of 5,300 people in the Denver metro¹² area.

Hi. Kris?

KRIS TEEGARDIN: How are you?

RUNYON: Hey. Luke.

TEEGARDIN: Nice to meet you. Come on in.

RUNYON: Thanks.

So I met with Kris Teegardin. He's the mayor of Edgewater. The city has five retail marijuana shops and this year, they're projected to bring in more than a million dollars in marijuana tax revenue. And to put that in perspective, the city's total annual budget is $6 million. So that's one-sixth that's coming from marijuana.

TEEGARDIN: Tax sales have been able to speed up major infrastructure¹³ improvements otherwise that we would have to take a very incremental¹⁴ approach toward.

RUNYON: One of those improvements is road paving. Teegardin even jokes that maybe they should be paving the roads in green to show people how their marijuana tax dollars are being spent. They're also putting money towards a brand-new civic¹⁵ center. Other cities here in Colorado are funding homelessness programs, mental health centers. But Teegardin is not banking¹⁶ on this money coming in forever.

TEEGARDIN: This is something that we know could go away in a blink of an eye, or it could have a downturn when other states legalize it or other municipalities decide to join. So we are really looking at a murky¹⁷ forecast in sales in the next three or four years.

WIGHT: So this all kind of follows what the head of marijuana coordination¹⁸ in Colorado, Andrew Freedman, says, doesn't it? That tax revenue is really not the reason to support legalization.

RUNYON: And it's really not enough to solve big budgetary problems that states like Colorado and Maine are facing.

WIGHT: For NPR News, I'm Patty Wight in Portland, Maine.

RUNYON: And I'm Luke Runyon in Greeley, Colo.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 enticing   

adj.迷人的；诱人的

参考例句：

• The offer was too enticing to refuse. 这提议太有诱惑力，使人难以拒绝。
• Her neck was short but rounded and her arms plump and enticing. 她的脖子短，但浑圆可爱；两臂丰腴，也很动人。

5 addicted   

adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的

参考例句：

• He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
• She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。

6 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

7 offset   

n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿

参考例句：

• Their wage increases would be offset by higher prices.他们增加的工资会被物价上涨所抵消。
• He put up his prices to offset the increased cost of materials.他提高了售价以补偿材料成本的增加。

8 slew   

v.（使）旋转；n.大量，许多

参考例句：

• He slewed the car against the side of the building.他的车滑到了大楼的一侧，抵住了。
• They dealt with a slew of other issues.他们处理了大量的其他问题。

9 licensing   

v.批准，许可，颁发执照( license的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• A large part of state regulation consists of occupational licensing. 大部分州的管理涉及行业的特许批准。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• That licensing procedures for projects would move faster. 这样的工程批准程序一定会加快。 来自辞典例句

10 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

11 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

12 metro   

n.地铁；adj.大都市的；(METRO)麦德隆(财富500强公司之一总部所在地德国，主要经营零售)

参考例句：

• Can you reach the park by metro?你可以乘地铁到达那个公园吗？
• The metro flood gate system is a disaster prevention equipment.地铁防淹门系统是一种防灾设备。

13 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

14 incremental   

adj.增加的

参考例句：

• For logic devices, the incremental current gain is very important. 对于逻辑器件来说，提高电流增益是非常重要的。 来自辞典例句
• By using an incremental approach, the problems involving material or geometric nonlinearity have been solved. 借应用一种增量方法，已经解决了包括材料的或几何的非线性问题。 来自辞典例句

15 civic   

adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的

参考例句：

• I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
• The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。

16 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。

17 murky   

adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗

参考例句：

• She threw it into the river's murky depths.她把它扔进了混浊的河水深处。
• She had a decidedly murky past.她的历史背景令人捉摸不透。

18 coordination   

n.协调，协作

参考例句：

• Gymnastics is a sport that requires a considerable level of coordination.体操是一项需要高协调性的运动。
• The perfect coordination of the dancers and singers added a rhythmic charm to the performance.舞蹈演员和歌手们配合得很好，使演出更具魅力。