Those in attendance at the "Growing Green: Marijuana Policy Impacts on State Budgets"  session at the CSG National Conference heard that states have collected what they characterized as significant but not game changing revenues. Friednash and Todd, both from Colorado, the first state to legalize sales of recreational marijuana, reinforced that marijuana revenues are but a sliver of overall state revenues. In his presentation, economist Beau Whitney presented estimates of other economic impacts of marijuana legalization including jobs creation and economic multipliers. Rep. Rogers said he believed the biggest argument for regulation is that people will continue to use the substance even absent legalization and legalization provides for product safety and state revenues as the black market disappears. 

On Dec. 7, state leaders will have the opportunity to discuss the benefits of early childcare, and why states should invest in making early childhood education affordable for working families, at a CSG 2018 National Conference session titled Working Families and the Struggle to Find Early Care and Education.
Albert Wat, senior policy director at the Alliance for Early Success, provided CSG with valuable insight on this critical issue. According to Wat, the cost of and the lack of access to quality childcare and education are the biggest struggles families face. Wat called the search for childcare an equity issue among low-income families.