Anchorage marijuana sales tax revenue continues steady climb

Anchorage collected around $70,000 in marijuana sales taxes in April, according to a city official.

Nine stores paid taxes to the city, wrote Blyss Cruz, manager of Program Taxes and Tax Collection with Anchorage's Treasury Department.

A marijuana sales tax of 5 percent was approved by Anchorage voters in April 2016.

Each month since Anchorage began collecting marijuana sales tax revenue, it's continued to creep steadily upward.

In January, the city's first full month of tax revenue, $22,000 was brought in by marijuana taxes. That increased to $37,000 in February. Then in March, the city collected $57,000.

That hasn't been the case with the statewide tax, which dipped in January as growers struggled to keep up with demand. In Alaska, cultivators pay a $50 tax per ounce of marijuana flower, or $15 an ounce for leaves and stems.

By April, Alaska's Department of Revenue had collected nearly $1 million during the roughly six months that cannabis stores had been open in Alaska, but that has still lagged behind projections.