Maine's Biennial Budget
Legislative work continues to steadily flow in Augusta,
Maine as more bills are taken up by policy committees and many of them are
meeting passage or being killed. In addition, the state’s biennial budget is
slowly inching forward as the Appropriations & Financial Committee has
accepted non-controversial initiatives, and will soon tackle the more
contentious ones.
The Marijuana Legalization Implementation Committee
In the meantime, the implementation of adult-use marijuana
legalization continues to pose interesting and as-yet undecided policy
questions to the Marijuana Legalization Implementation Committee (MLI) and the
State House’s respective party caucuses.
The MLI has thus far held a series of public hearings
allowing any and all members of the public to voice a range of opinions around
marijuana policy, including the state’s preexisting medical program. However,
only LD 243 has been taken up in MLI. This bill, after being extensively worked
by the committee received a 16-1 “ought to pass as amended” vote. It is now poised to establish a “hub and
spokes” model of licensing that would be centered on the Department of
Administrative and Financial Services (DAFS) with major “spokes” extending to
the Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations (BABLO) and the
Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry (DACF). BABLO, an
organization that exists within DAFS, would regulate packaging and retail,
while DACF would regulate cultivation.
The Committee will continue to meet regularly through the
end of session and continue through the interim period between sessions. The Committee is likely to hold several more
large public hearings throughout the spring that will cluster individual bills
based on their proposals and the different aspects of legalization
implementation.
Opportunity Agenda
In other news, Legislative Democrats unveiled the
“Opportunity Agenda” last week, a counter-proposal to the most recent LePage
biennial budget. The program is touted by Democrats as providing the largest
property tax cut in history, funded partially through new revenues created by
adult-use marijuana legalization.
