Last week, the Vermont House voted in favor of legalizing a marketplace for marijuana, two years after lawmakers legalized possession and limited personal cultivation of the drug.
The legislation, S.54, which passed on a vote of 90-54, would chart a path for dispensaries to open up in 2022 and create a new regulatory structure called the Cannabis Control Board to oversee the industry.
The vote on the legislation fell largely along party lines, although a sizable number of Democrats joined Republicans in voting against the bill. Before the measure is sent to the governor’s desk, the House and Senate will need to compromise on differences between the versions the chambers adopted.
In the House last week, 83 Democrats, six Republicans and one independent voted in favor, while three independents, 36 Republicans and 18 Democrats opposed the legislation.
Democrats who opposed the legislation did so for different reasons. Some disliked the proposal because it no longer allows towns to levy a local option tax on marijuana sales.
Others represented districts with more conservative views on cannabis.
Rep. Charen Fegard, D-Berkshire, who hails from one of those districts, said she “handed” her vote to her constituents, asking them to contact her about how she should vote on the proposal.
At the time of the vote, she had received 68 responses; the constituents voting against the legislation held a small lead of just under 10%.
“This is stunning to me that there’s only less than a 10% margin,” she said.
Some had expected more Republicans to vote in favor of the legislation.
Rep. Scott Beck, R-St. Johnsbury, who voted for the bill, thought that about half of his caucus would back the measure.
While most Republicans opposed the 2018 legalization effort, he noted that after the measure passed, many GOP legislators supported an amendment proposed by former House Minority Leader Don Turner that would have legalized a market for the drug.
At the time, Beck said that many members of the party wanted the drug to be regulated and for the state to see revenue from the substance, if it was also going to be legalized.
“I kind of thought … that a lot of them had made the leap to say, if we’re going to legalize it then we should tax and regulate it,” Beck said.
But some Republicans took issue with a provision in the bill that would require police to obtain warrants before using saliva tests — a concern of Republican Gov. Phil Scott, as well.
Scott has said that to earn his support for the marijuana legislation, lawmakers need to allow police to use the saliva tests without a warrant requirement.
However, Democrats rejected a Republican-backed push to take the warrants out of the bill last week.
Beck added that some members of his party may have cooled to the idea of legal marijuana sales after seeing that the market would bring in less revenue than expected. After four years, legal marijuana sales in Vermont are projected to bring in about $13 million in state tax revenue, according to a mid-range estimate from the Joint Fiscal Office.
“If anybody had any illusions that this was going to reduce any tax burden somewhere else they would be very disappointed in that,” Beck said.
Most of the revenue would fill the state’s general fund, and a small portion would go into the state’s education fund. The education fund revenue would help expand after-school programs for children.
Rep. Brian Smith, R-Derby, who previously championed legalizing marijuana sales, said last week that he couldn’t support the measure because it wouldn’t direct any money to help lower property taxes.
