LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Every year, Nevada takes in hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue.
A lot of that money comes from the cannabis industry and is set aside to help fund schools across the state.
So, after the Clark County School District found itself caught up in a budget shortfall recently, many of you asked what's the deal with the marijuana money.
13 Investigates just got the newest numbers showing how much marijuana money went into education coffers in the last fiscal year. Though it's a lot, it actually boils down to just a fraction of our state's education funding.
Cannabis retail stores and medical dispensaries brought in more than $829 million in taxable sales statewide over the last fiscal year, which runs from July 2023 through the end of June 2024.
Many people think all of that marijuana money goes straight to schools but that's not how the law divvies it up. The State Education Fund cashes in through two ways — retail taxes and wholesale taxes on the industry.
This fiscal year, the State Education Fund got a little over $107 million in marijuana money. That breaks down to $76.8 million from the retail excise tax and just over $31 million from wholesale taxes. That's what was left after disbursements to pay for state and local cannabis industry regulation and oversight.
And while $107 million sounds like a lot of money, as 13 Investigates previously reported, it's just a drop in the bucket when it comes to education funding.
2018 REPORT: Marijuana tax money for schools: Where is it going?
"The money's not trivial but it's not going to solve any budget crisis," Andrew Friedman, a Colorado marijuana czar, told us in 2018. "If you think this can be used to significantly change school funding, it's not that kind of money."
So how does the weed money get distributed?
According to the Nevada Department of Education, the cash goes into the Pupil-Centered Funding Program, which also includes money from other sources.
Every Nevada school district and charter school shares those funds, which are given out on a per-pupil basis. The current per-pupil rate is $9,414.
Because the State Education Fund mixes money from approximately 20 sources, state officials say they can't break down specifically how much cannabis tax money goes to each individual school district.
The state tells me no single tax source can be responsible for the change in the amount of per-pupil funding each year. In fact, we've learned the cannabis tax has been declining over time, while the per-pupil base amount has been steadily increasing.
In the past, some, including Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom, have advocated for better tracking from specific funding sources and for pot dollars to be allocated according to where they're collected.
In Nevada, Clark County brings in the most marijuana tax revenue by far.
"A lot of these counties don't have marijuana, don't want the marijuana, and shouldn't get the marijuana money," Segerblom previously told 13 Investigates.
When it comes to overall funding, the marijuana funding is just a drop in the bucket.
According to the Clark County School District, the Fiscal Year 2025 Amended Final Budget, which will be submitted to the state of Nevada by January, included total expenditures in the general operating budget of approximately $3.97 billion.
