Colorado county using $425K in local pot taxes for college scholarships
A Colorado county is turning marijuana tax revenue into more college scholarships.
Pueblo Countys board of commissioners on Monday morning OKd a contract that creates a nearly $475,000 scholarship fund for local high school seniors attending college in Pueblo. The lions share of that fund $425,000 came from excise tax collections from cannabis cultivation, said county spokeswoman Paris Carmichael.
If we can continue growing this, this could be game-changing for Pueblo, she said.
Typically 300 to 400 Pueblo high school seniors attend Pueblo Community College or Colorado State University after graduation, Carmichael said. Theres no set scholarship limit per student, so its possible that the scholarships could be greater than the estimated $1,000 per student, she said.
The contract approved Monday allows the Pueblo Hispanic Education Foundation to administer the Pueblo County Scholarship, which is funded with $425,000 from local excise tax revenue on marijuana grown in the county and another $49,664 from the Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative.
Last year, Pueblo County awarded 23 such scholarships totaling $50,000.
To qualify for the cannabis-funded scholarship, the student must be a graduating high school senior in 2017, live in Pueblo County and attend either Pueblo Community College or Colorado State University in the fall of 2017.
More information on the applications, which are due April 30, is available at www.phef.net.
It is so critically important to make college affordable for our youth if we want to provide long-term economic opportunity to our community, County ...
