There’s a gaping budget hole caused by an economy in tatters.

There’s growing voter support and some assurance that the issue is no longer political poison. And there are tax windfalls, potentially huge revenues to be gleaned, if a bill can win bipartisan support in Harrisburg.

For those reasons, some Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania are coming around — if slowly — to the idea of legalizing marijuana for adult recreational use.

The reasons are not hard to discern.

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the state has lost almost $4 billion in tax revenue. That gap is only growing bigger. The Independent Fiscal Office last month warned taxpayers to be prepared for a “significant reduction” in essential services.

Meanwhile, states with legalized recreational marijuana are reaping major tax revenues.

Illinois, with a population similar in size to Pennsylvania’s, has raked in more than $10 million a month in taxes and fees since it legalized weed for adult use in January. Last year, Nevada collected $99 million; Oregon, $102 million; Colorado, $302 million; Washington state, $390 million; and California, $635 million.

And with New York, New Jersey, and Maryland also considering legalizing marijuana for recreational use, the Keystone State risks losing cannabis sales to its neighbors.

For a state where tax receipts total more than $35 billion, the additional tax collections from marijuana alone would not solve the budget problem, but they could help the state’s fund-starved schools, or repair crumbling roads and bridges. For courts and prisons, legalizing would wipe out the cost of prosecuting marijuana-related offenses.

Until recently, Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania have uniformly avoided talking about legalization. The state’s legal medical marijuana program, in operation for more than two years, has been touted as an unqualified success by many of the same GOP legislators. But until this month, they have been unified in their opposition to recreational sales.

Faced with deficits larger than those seen during the Great Recession of 2008, some of the GOP’s more pragmatic legislators are giving it new consideration.

“Given the pandemic and the fiscal problems that the state is facing, people who may not have formerly considered recreational marijuana as a revenue generator may be brought to the table,” said State Sen. Dan Laughlin (R., Erie), who may be the first of the Republican caucus to talk openly about it.

“I fully believe that recreational marijuana is going to be one of the pieces of revenue that is certainly discussed in the budget cycle. It absolutely will be,” said Laughlin, who is up for reelection in November. “I’m not a big fan of marijuana, but I also know there’s not a kid or adult in America that couldn’t find a bag of weed if they wanted it.”