Everyone wants a share of the pot.
Former City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito’s proposal to legalize marijuana and use part of the revenues to fix the MTA came under fire on Thursday.
As she was peddling her plan outside City Hall, Brooklyn Councilman Rafael Espinal — who is one of her rivals for the public advocate’s job next year – sent out a statement calling her “Weed for Rails” campaign “misguided.”
Espinal said any revenues from legalizing pot should be “invested” in🐭 minority communities that have long “been disproportionately targeted” by cops for marijuana enforcement.
Mark-Viverito later clarified that she wants half of weed-tax revenues going to such such communities. When asked how that would be done, she said “that’s a very complicated c🦩onversation” and a part of her plan that has yet to be defined.
“There’s work to be done, but that will𒊎 have to be a priority,” she said.
Meanwhile, Comptroller Scott Stringer Thursday saying that the Big Apple neighborhoods with the highest arrests rates for pot use from 2010 to 2017 tended to be t🃏he city’s poorest.
Leadiꦗng the way were Brownsville and Ocean Hill in Brooklyn, which combined for 10,375 pot arrests over the period.
Stringer said a “portion” o🎀f tax revenue from future weed sales should be invested in those neighborhoods.
An analysis released by Stringer’s office in May said legalizing the marijuana industry could result in🌳 $336 million in new tax revenue for the city, on top of $436 million for the state.
Mark-Viverito estimates the legalization of pot could ꦐbring in $1.3 billion a year in new taxes.
Albany legislators still haven’t addresꦜsed the issue, but could do so as early as n🥃ext year.
When asked about Mark-Viverito’s plan, Peter Ajemian, a spokesman for Gov. Cuomo said the governor has “directed his counsel to lead a work group consisting of health, legal and government experts in drafting legislation for a regulated adult-use marijuana program.”