Legalize Marijuana To Fund Broadband Access Expansion, Wisconsin Democratic Candidates For Governor Say
Wisconsin marijuana legalization to fund broadband access isn’t a pipe dream—it’s the shortest route from dial‑up to the digital interstate
On a chilly debate stage where platitudes usually go to retire, one line cut clean through the static: legalize weed. Wisconsin Rep. Francesca Hong said it like a bartender sliding you the good stuff without asking for ID—plain, unapologetic, utilitarian. The promise is simple: use cannabis taxation to bankroll broadband access expansion, from the dairy barn dead zones to the cul‑de‑sac backwaters. Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez nodded toward the reality everyone already knows—Wisconsin’s money is bleeding out across the border into Illinois, and now Michigan and Minnesota too, every weekend warrior happily subsidizing someone else’s legal cannabis revenue. You could hear the shrug in her voice: we’re paying either way. At the same forum, Sen. Kelda Roys and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley backed legalization, and Democratic contender Missy Hughes added her assent, forming a chorus that sounded less like a campaign promise and more like a collective admission that the Wisconsin cannabis market exists—it just doesn’t belong to Wisconsin yet. For the primary keyword seekers in the room: Wisconsin marijuana legalization isn’t just culture war fodder; it’s an infrastructure plan with a cultivar’s patience and a budget analyst’s spreadsheets.
The math isn’t mystical. State analysts have already sketched the contours: hundreds of millions in potential legal cannabis revenue over time, and an immediate stop to the ritual of paying Illinois to pave its roads with Wisconsin’s taste for a flower that’s legal the second you cross a line on a map. In 2022 alone, Wisconsinites forked over well north of a hundred million dollars to Illinois dispensaries, with a fat slice of that turning into Illinois tax receipts. That’s not morality—it’s leakage. Broadband is the clean sink below that leak, waiting for the next drip to become fiber optic. Republican Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann didn’t bless legalization at the forum, preferring a broadband‑first riff, but the lesson from neighboring markets is unmistakable: regulate, tax, invest. Even Illinois’s governor jokes about Wisconsin’s prohibition dividend flowing into his coffers. Hong’s line—legalize weed to fund high‑speed internet—lands because it isn’t hypothetical; the revenue already exists. We’re just outsourcing the collection.
Back at the Capitol, the plot thickens like a reduction sauce. Senate leaders Mary Felzkowski and Patrick Testin advanced a GOP‑branded medical marijuana bill, heard in committee with the promise to move “fairly quickly.” The Assembly’s Republican speaker promptly called it too broad, reminding everyone that in Wisconsin, marijuana policy reform is a perpetual knife fight conducted in slow motion. Majority Leader Tyler August has conceded the obvious—THC is here and it’s not going away—while Assistant Majority Leader Dan Feyen insists medical must look like a pharmaceutical, neat and tidy on a shelf. Meanwhile, a past plan for state‑run dispensaries from Speaker Robin Vos was too tidy by half and stalled out. Polling is a neon sign blinking in the fog: roughly two‑thirds of voters support legalization statewide, with rural voters not far behind. Governor Tony Evers, bowing out of another run, has said if his party flips the legislature, the state finally stops paying tolls to Illinois for the privilege of buying a product Wisconsinites already use. The center of gravity is shifting; the holdouts are losing altitude.
Look around the Midwest and you’ll see the same story told in different dialects. In Ohio, voters are warming to the smell of commerce as much as cannabis; majorities say new dispensaries lift the economy, a sentiment captured in Most Ohioans Support Opening New Marijuana Shops In The State And Say They Improve The Economy, Poll Finds. Cross west to the Plains and it gets thornier: the Nebraska attorney general labeled marijuana a poison, a warning flare answered by sovereignty and steel from tribal leadership—see the tension sketched in Nebraska Attorney General Calls Marijuana A ‘Poison’ And Says People Who Buy It From A Tribe Within The State Do So ‘At Their Own Peril’ and the response in Nebraska Tribe Punches Back After State Officials Hint At Prosecuting People For Buying Marijuana On Its Reservation. South Dakota, ever the cautious neighbor, is toggling the valves tighter on medical marijuana and hemp, a reminder that implementation is where ideals meet the health department paperwork, as explored in South Dakota Legislative Panel Recommends Tighter Regulations On Medical Marijuana And Hemp Products. Wisconsin’s choice isn’t abstract; it’s regional gravity. The market moves, with or without permission.
Strip away the slogans and you get something sturdy: cannabis taxation can underwrite public goods, and broadband access expansion is the kind of no‑nonsense investment that pays back in small‑town entrepreneurship, telehealth that actually loads, and classrooms where buffering doesn’t dictate the lesson plan. If lawmakers want a pilot light instead of a bonfire, fine—stand up a tight medical program with guardrails, measure the outcomes, and iterate. But the current posture—watching dollars sprint across state lines while rural communities refresh a loading screen—feels less like prudence and more like denial. Wisconsin has the numbers, the polling wind at its back, and a coalition that ranges from libertarian‑leaning to pragmatically progressive. The question is whether the legislature can trade theater for policy, and sooner rather than later. When you’re ready to explore what’s possible in this space, browse our selection here: https://thcaorder.com/shop/.
