New Jersey residents are more likely to support legalizing recreational marijuana if they are convinced its proceeds would be used to lower their property taxes, according to a new poll.
A little less than half polled — 44 percent — said they support recreational marijuana for adults, as compared to 31 percent who opposed, according to a private survey obtained by NJ Advance Media that was conducted for Nuka Enterprises, a company that makes marijuana-based food products.
But when New Jerseyans were asked about recreational marijuana and if they would support it if it could help ease their local taxes, a majority — 53 percent — said they’d support legal weed, according to the poll. Only 24 percent still opposed the measure.
No legislation for legalizing marijuana has yet materialized, though lawmakers are working on a bill. And there’s been no talk from Gov. Phil Murphy or lawmakers about tying pot revenue to ease the residents’ property tax burdens, which are the most severe in the nation.
Murphy’s state budget proposed in March estimated the state would initially take in $60 million from taxing adult-use marijuana, which wouldn’t put much of a dent into the property tax problem if lawmakers chose to go that way. With legislation stalled, the budget Murphy signed for the current fiscal year does not anticipate any revenue from legal weed.
Murphy campaigned on legalization and continued to push for it after he took office in January.
During that time, while he said tax revenue would be great, he argued marijuana arrests disproportionally target minority communities. The social justice aspect of legalization is paramount, Murphy says.
But only 39 percent of New Jerseyans polled “strongly agreed” that minorities are disproportionally harmed by pot arrests.
Nuka Enterprises used TargetSmart to administer the survey.
It polled 1,500 New Jerseyans by landline and cell phone between August 9 and 19. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
Credit: nj.com
