via videosift.com

The state of California is having a tough time making ends meet these days, but proposals to legalize and tax marijuana, which could generate over a billion dollars in new revenue every year, have generally met with skepticism, derision and/or political cowardice by the state’s elected leaders.

In March, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco introduced AB 390, a bill that would legalize and tax marijuana. In July, the state tax board estimated that if Ammiano’s bill were to pass, it would produce $1.4 billion in new tax revenue every year.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who, in his youth, was caught on tape toking a doob (see video above) opposes AB 390. Anticipating his veto, there has been little enthusiasm for the bill in the capitol.

Whiffing important but controversial legislation is standard operating procedure in Sacramento, so legalization activists have recently begun taking matters into their own hands. Two separate ballot initiatives that would legalize and tax marijuana have now been greenlighted for signature-gathering by the secretary of state’s office. Each will need to collect about 490,000 signatures by Feb. 18 in order to appear on the November 2010 ballot.

It is currently a felony to sell a joint or grow a marijuana plant in California. California NORML estimates that it costs the state $170.3 million annually to arrest, prosecute and incarcerate marijuana offenders. As part of their deal-making to close the state’s multi-billion dollar budget gap, the governor and the legislature are negotiating strategies that would dramatically reduce the state’s burgeoning prison population. And yet Schwarzenegger appears to be averse to releasing non-violent pot offenders as a group. Observers predict that the cuts in prison rolls may be made arbitrarily instead, which could lead to the release of serious offenders and leave harmless stoners behind bars.

Politically speaking, if one or both of the initiatives qualify for the ballot next November, it can be assumed either of them would draw out young people, civil libertarians and liberals, which would help the Democratic candidates, including ticket-toppers Sen. Barbara Boxer, who may be opposed by ousted Hewlett-Packard (and McCain campaign embarrassment) CEO Fiorina, and either San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who has announced he’s running, or Attorney General and former Gov. Jerry Brown, who has not.

Finally, even if one or both of the ballot initiatives were to pass next year, marijuana possesion would still be illegal under federal law. In August, the Obama administration DEA made its first raids on the state’s legal medical marijuana industry.