New Jersey’s State Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D) told reporters that the date for the state Senate’s first vote on its adult-use cannabis legalization bill is October 29, according to NJ.com.
Sweeney had said in August he expected the legislature to vote by the end of September but that deadline is rapidly approaching and committee hearings have not yet been scheduled. Sweeney said that lawmakers and Gov. Phil Murphy’s office are still pinning down the details of the legislation but are down to just “two issues” left to solve. Sweeney expected the issues to be solved possibly as early as today.
Sweeney was asked about the likelihood of New Jersey‘s other congressional house, the Assembly, setting a date for a vote but said he wasn’t able to comment on that. Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin’s office declined to comment on the issue.
After both bodies pass a bill, it will go to Gov. Murphy for a vote. Murphy has long been an advocate for legalization and has called on the legislature to pass a bill for him to sign by the end of the year. It seems likely that he would sign such a bill immediately.
Neither of the “two issues” left for lawmakers to solve have been disclosed, though Murphy’s administration and the state Congress have previously disagreed over the precise tax rate. Under the legislation last made public, the state would impose a 10 percent tax rate — one of the lowest in the country. Murphy’s administration believes that 10 percent is too low; Gov. Murphy, however, has said that his administration has not yet taken a “hardened position on taxes.”