Ultra-liberal Evanston, Illinois, legalizes pot sales by promising tax revenue will go to "reparations"
Evanston, Illinois, is a wealthy suburb of Chicago and home to Northwestern
University. Recently the town's city council voted to allow legal cannabis dispensaries to open
within the city limits.
But instead of collecting taxes on the sale of weed, Evanston's virtue-signalling council members have said they'll use the expected tax revenue from legalized pot to establish a fund that will pay what amount to reparations to the city’s black residents.
The city council says they hope the measure will halt gentrification and keep the city “diverse,” though council members claim they merely want to rectify the lingering institutional effects of slavery and discrimination.
The city, which has a reputation as a haven for so-called “limousine liberals,” isn’t new to the idea of reparations, though, just this particular program.
Last year the city council created an "Equity and Empowerment Commission" to investigate the possibility of starting a reparations program after the city’s black population dropped, partly due to ongoing gentrification. The commission came up with the plan to issue reparations before they came up with a source of funding. That problem was neatly solved when Illinois legalized recreational marijuana last summer.
Instead of paying cash directly, the city will instead “provide reparations in the form of assistance” by establish a fund that will support community programs designed to help minorities. But yet another committee is looking at building "free" housing or providing "economic incentives."
The city says the fund will be capped at $10 million, and projects that the marijuana tax could generate $500,000 to $750,000 per year.”
A handful of skeptics claim the Constitution doesn't allow tax revenue to be used to benefit members of just one race, but those pushing the idea smile, noting that as long as the enabling ordinance doesn't explicitly limit the program, there's no problem.
Other skeptics claim the council cunningly pushed the "reparations" angle to make pot sales inside city limits more attractive to voters. Hmmm....
So herewith, a modest prediction: Wannabee pot millionaires will instantly team with race hustlers across the U.S. to push "reparations-from-pot-sales-taxes" schemes in every reluctant city. They'll make the deal even sweeter by proposing that cities set aside a third of all pot licenses exclusively for minorities. Such a deal!
Source: The Chicago Tribune.
But instead of collecting taxes on the sale of weed, Evanston's virtue-signalling council members have said they'll use the expected tax revenue from legalized pot to establish a fund that will pay what amount to reparations to the city’s black residents.
The city council says they hope the measure will halt gentrification and keep the city “diverse,” though council members claim they merely want to rectify the lingering institutional effects of slavery and discrimination.
The city, which has a reputation as a haven for so-called “limousine liberals,” isn’t new to the idea of reparations, though, just this particular program.
Last year the city council created an "Equity and Empowerment Commission" to investigate the possibility of starting a reparations program after the city’s black population dropped, partly due to ongoing gentrification. The commission came up with the plan to issue reparations before they came up with a source of funding. That problem was neatly solved when Illinois legalized recreational marijuana last summer.
Instead of paying cash directly, the city will instead “provide reparations in the form of assistance” by establish a fund that will support community programs designed to help minorities. But yet another committee is looking at building "free" housing or providing "economic incentives."
The city says the fund will be capped at $10 million, and projects that the marijuana tax could generate $500,000 to $750,000 per year.”
A handful of skeptics claim the Constitution doesn't allow tax revenue to be used to benefit members of just one race, but those pushing the idea smile, noting that as long as the enabling ordinance doesn't explicitly limit the program, there's no problem.
Other skeptics claim the council cunningly pushed the "reparations" angle to make pot sales inside city limits more attractive to voters. Hmmm....
So herewith, a modest prediction: Wannabee pot millionaires will instantly team with race hustlers across the U.S. to push "reparations-from-pot-sales-taxes" schemes in every reluctant city. They'll make the deal even sweeter by proposing that cities set aside a third of all pot licenses exclusively for minorities. Such a deal!
Source: The Chicago Tribune.
posted by SF at
4:17 PM
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