The St. Albans Town Selectboard is weighing a ballot question for next year’s Town Meeting Day on whether to allow retail cannabis shops in the community.
Board members expressed support for a vote on local cannabis sales in response to a question from Chair Brendan Deso at their meeting Monday night. Some members said they did not support legalizing the drug in the first place, but since it is legal, they would like town residents to have a say on bringing in potential revenue from it.
“I still don’t know how I’d vote for (local cannabis sales) in a booth,” Deso said. “But I think we are all fairly on the same page: Put it on the ballot.”
Legislation to establish a legal marketplace for marijuana became law in the fall, two years after the state legalized limited possession and cultivation of the drug.
Under state law, cannabis retailers and growers can set up shop only if voters at the local level approve. Municipalities cannot prohibit the operation of nonretail cannabis establishments, and approved shops may open as early as October 2022.
About 20 Vermont towns gave recreational marijuana sales the green light on Town Meeting Day this year, and a handful rejected the ballot item. No towns in Franklin County voted on cannabis sales in 2021, according to a VTDigger report.
Several Selectboard members said that, if there was going to be a dispensary in town, they would want it to be located away from schools and to have a discreet outward appearance.
Vice Chair Jessica Frost said if the board puts a question on the ballot, she would like there to be a community forum before Town Meeting Day where residents could share their thoughts on retail cannabis sales, perhaps together with state officials.
Deso agreed and said the town should start looking into potential ballot language.
State Sen. Corey Parent, R-Franklin, was at the meeting Monday and told board members he has always opposed legalizing marijuana but now supports taxing and regulating it.
Parent, who also serves as St. Albans Town’s director of operations, said he thinks it is only a matter of time before the Legislature changes state policy so the growth of local marijuana markets is not contingent on cities and towns opting in or out.
“Towns in Vermont can’t outlaw alcohol, for instance,” he said in an interview. “I think we’ll see a similar regulation regime to that in time.”
When dispensaries open, marijuana will be taxed at a 20% tax rate — 14% excise tax and 6% sales tax. Parent said legislators also have discussed allowing municipalities to levy a local option tax on retail marijuana sales, but that amount has not been decided.
“The definite feeling in the Legislature,” he said, “is to push municipalities toward being able to raise a little bit of revenue on the sale of retail marijuana in their community.”
Last year, Vermont’s Joint Fiscal Office estimated marijuana sales could bring nearly $20 million in annual state revenue after three years.
Selectboard member Erin Creley said she thinks a ballot question on allowing cannabis sales would spur important and timely conversations in St. Albans Town.
“Regardless of the outcome,” she said, “I think it might be a helpful exercise.”
