Coming to Vermont? |
I'm not sure this is a end-of-the-meeting, rubber stamp type resolution. My quick turn through the internet says the resolution has stirred Board debate at least at Selectboard meetings in Barre, Chester, and Springfield, the occurred before Thanksgiving. The website Vermontijuana labels the VLCT as an anti-cannabis lobbying group.
The retail sale of pot presents a unique situation for Norwich as it is adjacent to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, where cannabis is not legal. In addition, the Village Business area includes the Marion Cross School, grades pre-K to 6th.
Legislation to permit the retail sale of marijuana is expected to be proposed in Montpelier in January. The anticipated bill would allow "local municipalities to ban sales by a vote of those present at an annual or special meeting but not by an ordinance," according to the story in the Chester Telegraph. "The bill allows for local cannabis control commissions to handle permitting and local regulations and a 2 percent local option tax collected on sales."
In contrast, the VLCT resolution allows towns to "opt-in" and calls for a 5 percent local tax, with 70% of revenues being retained by the host community of the retail establishment. Towns would also apparently need to opt-in for farmers to grow marijuana ("cultivate, process, manufacture, or sell cannabis"). The remaining 30% goes to other municipalities, "hosting growing or manufacturing marijuana businesses," says the Time Argus report of the VLCT presentation to the Barre Board, although the proportions of the split are not stated. The implications is that is if a town is not a host, it gets nothing.
The Selectboard in Springfield modified the resolution. According to the Eagle Times report:
The Springfield Selectboard objected, however, to two parts of the VLCT provision. In the board’s amended version, the resolution changes the “opt-in” for municipalities to an “opt-out” and removes the language which would distribute 30% of the collected tax revenues to municipalities that don’t host commercial cannabis.==================
Originally posted on HereCast on:12.02.2019.
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