[T]he House will soon consider legislation that would establish a legal market for cannabis in Vermont, as momentum to pave the way for a system to tax and regulate the substance grows in the Legislature’s lower chamber.
Under a measure that will be proposed this week by Rep. Sam Young, D-Greensboro, and which had 52 co-sponsors as of late Tuesday afternoon, Vermont cannabis dispensaries would be able to open in 2021.
Cannabis sales would be taxed at a combined 20 percent rate: an 11 percent excise tax, a 6 percent sales tax and a 3 percent local option tax.
The Senate, which has passed tax and regulate legislation on three prior occasions, is expected to easily pass its own version of the measure in the coming weeks.
Many have expected that the path forward for such a proposal will be more difficult in the House, which in previous years never saw the support to vote out a tax and regulate bill.
But Young said Tuesday that after taking the pulse of lawmakers, the House “certainly” had the votes to pass his bill this year.
He noted however, that the bill would not have the support to survive a veto if Gov. Phil Scott moved to kill it — particularly if a large group of House Republicans voted to sustain him.
The governor has said that he would only support tax and regulate legislation if lawmakers agreed to fund additional cannabis education and prevention programs, and roadside safety initiatives.
Democrats working on the Senate bill have so far rejected the administration’s call to fund education initiatives and legalize roadside saliva testing to test the presence of marijuana in drivers’ systems.
But Young said that because House legislators won’t have the 100 votes needed to override a veto on a tax and regulate proposal, if they want to legalize a market for cannabis this year, they will need to consider funding such programs in a compromise with Scott.
“I think that we’re going to have to work with the governor’s office in order to get a bill that he can sign,” Young said. “So that’s going to be a negotiation, because we’re not overriding a veto on this.”
While the House had not previously seen widespread support for a regulated cannabis market, since the state legalized limited possession and cultivation of the drug last year, many lawmakers have become open to the idea.
“If we’re telling people that they can use a substance then I think we have an ethical obligation to make sure that those substances are available and are safe,” said Rep. Scott Beck, R-St. Johnsbury, one of three Republicans who signed onto Young’s bill.
Beck voted in favor of Vermont’s cannabis legalization law last year, but many who are considering backing Young’s bill voted against last year’s legalization.
Rep. George Till, D-Jericho, voted against last year’s bill but said he was open to supporting Young’s bill now that the state is seeing all the “downsides” of a cannabis legalization but none of the “upsides” of a legal market.
“Once legalized, and once the use is clearly going to spread more, then you’re going to need the money from a regulated system to offset some of the issues that we know are going to arise,” Till said.
Till said he would only support a legal market if it funded initiatives including bolstered education about cannabis in schools, and additional drug recognition experts to aid law enforcement officers in determining when drivers are impaired.
Like Till, Jim Harrison, R-North Chittenden, who voted against legalization last year, also wants to see tax revenue from cannabis sales harnessed to fund roadside safety and education programs.
“I think we should have some control,” Harrison said. “We know we’re going to have costs, and I think we should get some revenue from those products. We know we have costs regulating liquor — we tax it to hopefully recoup those costs.”
House Speaker Mitzi Johnson D-South Hero, has been reluctant to support efforts to tax and regulate cannabis, and Young said Tuesday that he would be discussing his legislation with her during a meeting later this week.
Johnson, who has concerns about road safety and youth usage under a regulated market, has said she is in favor of legalizing saliva testing for law enforcement officers in tandem with expanded cannabis legalization.
The House passed a saliva testing bill last year, but it faced criticism from many Democrats and civil rights organizations because the tests do not determine impairment, but the presence of a substance in someone’s system. The saliva testing legislation ultimately died in the Senate.
The Senate’s tax and regulate proposal would levy a lower 11 percent tax rate on cannabis sales: a 10 percent excise tax and a 1 percent local option tax. Like the House bill, under the Senate proposal dispensaries would not open until 2021.
But the House bill would allow medical cannabis dispensaries to receive temporary licenses to sell the substance to the public starting in 2020.
