Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform and creator of the congressional pledge to keep lawmakers from hiking revenues on Americans’ earnings, said adding a tax to marijuana sales is as good idea. Mr. Norquist made sure to convey to the National Journal that believing that doesn’t violate his anti-tax principles.
“That’s not a tax increase,” he said. “It’s legalizing an activity and having the traditional tax applied to it.”
It’s akin to when states legalize liquor sales on Sundays, or allow groceries to add beer and wine to their product sales lists, he said, Newsmax reported.
“When you legalize something and more people do more of it and the government gets more revenue because there’s more … that’s not a tax increase,” he said, in Newsmax. “The tax goes from 100 percent, meaning it’s illegal, to whatever the tax is.”
Mr. Norquist gave his personal nod to a recent legislative move to grant marijuana businesses the ability to obtain federal tax breaks. Current federal law bans any type of tax breaks for drug-related trafficking.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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