Slicing up the pot tax

Not a single recreational marijuana shop has been opened in the state yet, but already one eager lawmaker is eyeing the tax on that legal weed for one of his pet programs — summer jobs for young people.

Not that youth summer jobs aren’t a good idea — and one that many employers already support and many communities, like Boston, help organize.

Rep. Michael Day (D-Stoneham) certainly remembered fondly his days of working at an auto body shop as a teen and later for the Woburn Public Works Department, during a legislative hearing this week.

But Day, like many of his legislative colleagues, is looking at the proceeds from a state tax on marijuana sales as just another pot of “free money” — and who doesn’t like free money? He would earmark 1 percent of all proceeds from the sales price of each and every ounce of weed to a special Youth Employment Subsidy Fund. The fund would subsidize wages for those young workers employed by “qualified employers,” including cities and towns.

No one yet knows what the full tax amount will be. The law passed by voters last November provides a 3.75 percent excise tax on top of the 6.25 percent sales tax. Lawmakers, currently working on an omnibus bill to bring some sense to the original law, are likely to increase that total tax level, creating an even larger pool of money.

The Massachusetts Building Trades Council has already registered its opposition because the bill provides for a subminimum wage ($3 below the actual minimum wage), although Day insists the subsidy would bring actual wages to the current $11 level even if his bill doesn’t actually say that.

Its poor draftsmanship aside, the bill would divert revenue at a time when the state is already facing a half billion dollar shortfall this year. Slicing and dicing anticipated revenue is never a good idea. Are summer jobs more worthy than, say, addiction treatment beds or day care slots?

Being a lawmaker means making those tough choices, not saying “mine first” to pet programs.