IDR Announces $7.3 Million in Cannabis Tax Revenue

By Benjamin Cox on February 25, 2020 at 9:23am

The Illinois Department of Revenue announced today that adult-use cannabis sales generated over $7.3 million in tax revenues in its first month. The figure does not include over $3.1 million generated in retail sales tax revenues shared between state and local governments.

Governor J.B. Pritzker recently said in his budget address last week that the state would collect an estimated $28 million in cannabis tax revenue. With the current sales totals, Pritzker’s projections look to be too low in hindsight. Toi Hutchison, Senior Advisor to the Governor on Cannabis Control, said that today’s announcement was yet another milestone in the state’s roll out of the adult use program. She said that the 25% of the revenue collected will now begin flowing back into the portions of the state that qualify for the R3 equity program.

The state’s share of the revenue is divided among several other funds including:

• 35% to the state general fund.

• 20% to the Department of Human Services for substance abuse and prevention programs and mental health.

• 10% is put into the Budget Stabilization Fund to pay down the state’s backlog of unpaid bills.

• 8% goes to local governments to support crime prevention, training and interdiction efforts.

• 2% is used to fund public education campaigns and to support data collection and analysis of the public health impacts of legalizing recreational marijuana.

Earlier this month, the state announced that over $39 million in adult-use cannabis products were sold at retail dispensaries in the month of January. Under the recreational cannabis law, marijuana cultivators pay a 7% privilege tax on their sales to dispensaries. Retail sales are subject to retail sales taxes as well as a special cannabis tax that ranges from 10-25%, depending on the type of product being sold and its THC content.

The next round of local tax revenues will begin being collected in April.