How does this work in New Jersey?
The last iteration of the recreational marijuana legalization bill included a flat tax rate on cultivators growing the plant of $42 tax per ounce of marijuana.
The Legislature completed a fiscal impact analysis for an early version of the bill, but it doesn't calculate the costs for the latest proposal.
The Treasury Department estimated that recreational weed would bring in $60 million in six months, starting in January 2020. That would mean New Jersey would have taxed more than 89,200 pounds, or 1.4 million ounces, of marijuana.
And about $21 million of those funds would go into launching the program, so recreational cannabis would leave New Jerseyans really with an additional $39 million in revenue.
The Treasury Department got those numbers by looking at first-year revenues from recreational cannabis in Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington and weighing the states' populations against New Jersey.
That total was a much more conservative estimate than the $300 million Gov. Phil Murphy said was possible while he campaigned for governor.