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Regulation and Licensing presents budget, requests more cannabis compliance staff and law-enforcement capacity
Summary
Superintendent of the Regulation and Licensing Department briefed the committee on a 20% vacancy rate, progress on licensing IT, and a request to add compliance inspectors and a special agent team for cannabis enforcement; committee discussed funding structure and contingency language.
Superintendent (Regulation and Licensing Department) told the Senate Finance Committee the department has 378 total FTEs and a roughly 20 percent vacancy rate and outlined priorities across its divisions, including construction industries, alcoholic beverage, securities and cannabis licensing.
The superintendent described recent modernization gains: the department hired three in-house programmers to help keep licensing platforms adaptable and reduce reliance on external contracts; boards and commissions licensing platforms are online; and alcohol licensing recently moved to a Salesforce-based system. The superintendent said the department is prioritizing cybersecurity training and customer service improvements.
Cannabis enforcement and staffing were a focal point. The superintendent asked the committee to consider additional compliance inspectors and a law-enforcement expansion for the cannabis program. Department and LFC staff described two possible funding approaches: a GROW (time-limited) appropriation to test the program or recurring funding to build permanent positions. LFC staff explained that GROW appropriations are often used to pilot programs with performance metrics before adding recurring funding to the base budget.
LFC recommended a smaller, phased GROW approach; department requested a larger staff expansion. The superintendent said an enforcement unit that includes a special agent supervisor and six special agents would give the department the ability to support criminal investigations, execute search warrants and handle illicit market activity; the superintendent called the expansion "highly critical." LFC and the superintendent agreed any law-enforcement staffing should be coordinated with House Bill 10 (enforcement changes) so statutory authority and enforcement tools align.
Committee members pressed the superintendent on fee sufficiency: several senators observed that existing cannabis fee revenue will not cover the expanded enforcement and regulatory workload and suggested revisiting fee levels. Senator Steinborn asked the department to ensure local planning and zoning approvals are in place before issuing state licenses; the superintendent said the department now requires local approvals as a condition of state licensing and has begun pre-inspections to reduce situations where operations begin without local signoffs.
Ending: The committee discussed removing contingency language tying cannabis law-enforcement hires to passage of House Bill 10 and asked staff to consider fee adjustments and the structure of funding for enforcement. No vote on budget items was recorded in the transcript.
