[H]ouse members voted overwhelmingly Friday to strike down an eleventh-hour revival of a proposal to tax and regulate recreational marijuana in Vermont
In a vote of 106-28, the House postponed action on the proposal indefinitely, after Rep. Diana Gonzalez, P-Winooski, moved to bring it back on the floor Thursday, arguing that the state’s tight finances called for a bill that would generate new revenue.
Gonzalez said this week that she hoped the bill could avoid the committee process and go straight to the House floor, where she believed there were enough votes to pass it.
On Friday morning, House Democratic Majority Leader Jill Krowinski asked the body to postpone action on the bill, H.167, and said that with the time left in the session, members should be focusing on other priorities.
The Legislature already acted to legalize recreational marijuana this year, but many members said Friday that there was not enough time remaining in the session to thoroughly vet and design the structures for regulating and taxing the drug.
Others said that the state should move swiftly to put these structures in place.
Rep. Selene Colburn, P-Burlington, said passing a proposal now would improve public safety. And failing to tax the drug would be squandering an opportunity to raise revenues for prevention and harm-reduction efforts, she said.
“If we let this lie now we are essentially leaving money on the table,” she said on the House floor.
Ahead of the passage of a bill in January that legalizes possession and cultivation of small amounts of marijuana, effective July 1, the governor created a marijuana advisory commission tasked with, among other things, “finding a responsible approach to the sale and taxation of marijuana for recreational use.”
