New York will join over 20 other states in making tax money off of weed…..
Separate local towns, villages or cities may opt of the having marijuna businesses within their jurisdiction’s…..
The bill is scheduled to be taken up next week in the State Assembly and the Senate, shortly before the state budget is due next week. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Office of Cannabis Management established in the proposal would report to a five-member board, with three members appointed by the governor, and the State Assembly and Senate appointing one each. According to one estimate from the governor’s office, legal weed could bring in around $350 million in taxes annually — which would serve as a major boost to the state after the pandemic put a dent in sales-taxrevenue collected by New York State.
The marijuana money unfortunately will not come in time to help close the $2.5 billion budget shortfall New York is facing in the next fiscal year. Sales and taxes on the goods would begin as early as one year after the bill’s enactment, at which point recreational use and limited personal growing could reportedly begin. Tax revenue from weed sales would first go toward the operations of the Office of Cannabis Management and police officer training to detect impaired driving. Forty percent of the remaining revenue would go toward school aid, another 40 percent would be put into a fund establishing grants for social equity, and another 20 percent would go toward drug-treatment and public-education programs….
Update….
NY Gov Cuomo has signed the bill into law…