Pot talks on hold as Legislature eyes budget deal
House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo abruptly called on lawmakers reworking the state’s legalized marijuana law to halt their talks until the Legislature can complete its other unfinished work — the now-late state budget — injecting even more uncertainty on Beacon Hill.
DeLeo, in shutting down the pot talks, said lawmakers “can and should” send a compromise budget to Gov. Charlie Baker by the end of the week to cover the fiscal year that started July 1. But that will prolong the work of the six-member marijuana committee that’s nearly a week past its own self-imposed deadline to complete a bill.
In a statement, DeLeo sought to address speculation that lawmakers were using the parallel bargaining talks as leverage, saying the negotiations “were never linked by the House, nor should they be.”
“To remove any distractions, and because of the number of critical needs that hinge on our budget — particularly programs that care for the neediest among us — I have asked that the House members of the marijuana conference committee suspend negotiations until the budget is complete,” DeLeo said.
But Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg appeared to be miffed by the move, and fired off a statement of his own last night.
“The mischief makers are once again at work,” Rosenberg said. “The Senate has not and will not link the budget and marijuana negotiations. Period. The Senate is fully committed to continuing negotiations on both the budget and marijuana legislation simultaneously.”
Yet given the unparalleled power DeLeo wields within his chamber, his request will immediately shut down talks.
State Sen. Patricia D. Jehlen, the Senate’s lead negotiator on the marijuana bill, indicated she was surprised by DeLeo’s move, but senators will continue to work amid any shutdown.
“We have a lot of work that can go on without negotiating,” Jehlen said. “We’re working as hard as we can.”
Beacon Hill has been waiting for weeks for both sets of closed-door negotiations to produce results.
Budget talks have been complicated, in part, by uncertainty about the state’s tax base. Lawmakers are also wrangling with a proposal Gov. Charlie Baker handed down last month aimed at reducing Medicaid costs.
Lawmakers hashing out the marijuana bill, meanwhile, have yet to reconcile glaring differences, notably the 12 percent tax rate passed by the Senate, and 28 percent by the House.