School Board members want more marijuana money to help pay for teacher raises
Clark County School Board members are calling for millions of dollars in anticipated teacher raises to be paid for by higher-than-expected tax revenue from the state’s legal recreational marijuana program.
After losing an arbitration ruling last month for $51.5 million in salary and health care benefits, board members are asking for more than $26 million from a 10 percent excise tax on marijuana sales to help cover the expense. The excise tax is different from the 15 percent wholesale tax collected on the sale of marijuana, a large percentage of which already is allocated to Nevada public schools.
The excise tax was originally pegged for the state’s Distributive School Account but was ultimately delegated to the state’s Rainy Day Fund by the 2017 Nevada Legislature. District officials, state Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-las Vegas, and Las Vegas Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian have expressed desires to change that allocation.
For CCSD to access the money from the Rainy Day Fund this year, state lawmakers would have to give their approval in a special session. The plan also would require the governor’s approval. Under state law, a special session can be convened on the call of the governor or by two-thirds of the members of both the Nevada Senate and Assembly.
“The need is there,” Segerblom said. “And obviously the schools want it.”
Most of the $15.5 million raised by a 15 percent wholesale tax through the first eight months of recreational sales will be doled out to the Distributive School Account, said Stephanie Klapstein, spokeswoman for the Nevada Department of Taxation. A small percentage will be used to pay for state regulation enforcement and staffing for the new industry.
That money is distributed once per fiscal year, Klapstein said, and will be given