Pols miss deadline for agreement on pot bill
The long-awaited pot bill compromise was rolled over for another day after Beacon Hill lawmakers working into the night failed to announce an agreement.
The House and Senate conference committee entered the secretive, closed-door negotiations yesterday far apart on key components of the legislation.
By 8 p.m., the committee had not released an agreement, missing the legislative deadline to put a bill before the chambers today.
This means lawmakers will miss their self-imposed deadline to send it along to Gov. Charlie Baker.
Pro-pot advocate Jim Borghesani slammed the delay, calling for Baker to just back the law as approved at the ballot box.
“As we’ve said all along, the legalization measure passed by 1.8 million voters requires no fixes,” Borghesani said. “But the Legislature, with the governor’s support, chose to undertake revisions. ... We call on the governor to uphold the voters’ will by immediately releasing funds necessary for the treasurer to begin forming the governing body of this important new industry.”
House lawmakers had passed a version hiking the tax rate on weed sales to 28 percent, including a 16.75 percent excise tax and 5 percent local tax. The state Senate voted to leave the 12 percent tax rate that voters had approved last November.
The two chambers also disagreed on so-called local control of pot shops. The ballot question left it to local voters to decide whether to ban facilities from their towns or cities, an aspect the Senate decided to keep.
The House, however, moved to give that power to elected officials. It’s a move Baker said he supports, and has drawn backing from the Mass. Municipal Association.
Less clear is where Baker falls on taxing marijuana.