Here Come the Revenue Raisers!

In a press conference yesterday, the Governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, said that the state will need “revenue raisers” to balance the budget. Naturally, more and higher taxes come to mind when one thinks of the ways in which a state government would achieve a "revenue raiser."

But looking across the country at most states, they, too, will need their fair share of revenue raisers, in all likelihood. Beyond raising taxes, we will almost assuredly see more and more states fast-track legalizing sports betting, marijuana, and perhaps even look to the Netherlands to eventually legalize sex workers as obvious areas they can seek to dramatically increase tax revenue without losing more political favor from many state residents. 

As for pot stocks, by now I am sure you are well aware of the usual suspects of high beta names like ACB CGC TLRY, among others like NBEV. The problem with those charts is that they are still mired in multi-month downtrends which have yet to effectively reverse. The time may be soon, as the sector is getting some action this morning.

However, to reiterate a prior thesis both here and with Member, I still view Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., below on its weekly timeframe flagging nicely in a strong uptrend, as the better and more conservative play for now. SMG conjures up the television series, "Weeds," with its focus on the pot growers. And is still in a pretty good position beyond their core business to do well in a new, high world. 

Eventually, the momentum plays will have their day, though we need to see them string together more than just the recent one-off pops we have seen of late.