DENVER – With less than a week to Election Day, the campaign to tax marijuana has raised $65,000, a tiny sum for a statewide campaign.
But it might not matter.
Polls by the tax proponents show Proposition AA is headed for victory.
“It’s hovering around 60 to 65 percent,” said Joe Megyesy, spokesman for the Committee for Responsible Regulation.
The campaign took polls in August and September, using Keating Research, a Colorado pollster that had the most accurate poll of the state in the 2012 presidential election.
The latest poll, from Oct. 8 and 9, surveyed 600 likely voters statewide. It found 60 percent of respondents would definitely or probably vote “yes,” compared with 25 percent who would vote “no.” The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percent.
Prop AA is more popular with Democrats, whose 65 percent support is 12 points higher than the measure’s support among Republicans. Across both parties, the measure has higher support from voters ages 18 to 49 than from voters 50 and older.
Prop AA asks voters to approve two taxes on recreational marijuana – a 15 percent wholesale excise tax and a 10 percent retail sales tax, which the Legislature could raise as high as 15 percent.
The pro-Prop AA group got off to a late start in fundraising, with only one donation until an Oct. 2 fundraiser with Gov. John Hickenlooper. It brought in $36,000, its biggest haul.
Hickenlooper said proponents would need to raise more money, and he thanked medical marijuana businesspeople and lobbyists for contributing.
But fundraising has slowed early October.
In contrast to the campaign for an income-tax hike for schools, which has spent $3.1 million on television ads the last two weeks, the Prop AA campaign hasn’t spent a dime on advertising.
Instead, most of its spending has gone to paychecks for the campaign.
The campaign announced a coalition of supporters Tuesday, including the Colorado Municipal League, Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police, Club 20 and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.
Most donations have come from existing medical marijuana businesses.
The anti-Prop AA campaign has collected less than $2,200 all year.
joeh@cortezjournal.com
