Alaska lawmakers failed to pass a marijuana tax reform bill this session to the displeasure of some in the marijuana industry who are concerned the industry is beginning to spiral due to high prices as the result of burdensome taxation.
After passing the Alaska House with strong bipartisan support, the marijuana tax bill by Rep. Jesse Sumner, R-Wasilla, stalled in the Senate on the final day of session.
Some in the marijuana industry say they would like to see changes to the bill if it is revived next session.
The bill that stalled in the Senate would take the current $50 per ounce tax imposed on cultivators who sell their marijuana to a retail marijuana store and reduce it to $12.50 per ounce before phasing into a 7% state-wide sales tax in January of 2025.
Senate President Sen. Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, said the Senate just ran out of time to hear the bill, and the process was complicated by the House attaching the marijuana tax bill to his youth vaping BIll.
“We have not seen it in the Senate; we have not had a chance to really look at it and see what that bill would do,” Stevens said.
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