Cannabis legalization will not be included in the upcoming state budget, but New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expecting lawmakers will come together on a deal in the summer, according to a CNN report.
“If we could get it done by the budget, that would be great,” Cuomo said. “But there’s a whole legislative session after the budget and my take is it will be done during the legislative session post budget and therefore I took the revenue out of the budget.”
Cuomo did not attribute the change to counties who have threatened to opt-out of the market, noting that those communities would not get a share of the cannabis-derived state revenues. The Democratic governor – whose party controls both legislative houses – said Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie “was quite clear” he thought it was better to do it outside of the budget.
“When it’s not done in the budget, then it is, in my opinion, harder to do as a standalone bill because it’s now just marijuana with a capital M. I said from day one that the marijuana issue was going to be controversial. There’s no doubt about that.” – Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in the interview
New York is bordered by cannabis legalization in Canada, Massachusetts, and Vermont; while New Jersey lawmakers are set to take up a legalization bill next week.
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