Vermont cannabis board urges fee changes, proposes farmers‑market pilot and excise‑tax funding review

James Pepper, chair of the Vermont Cannabis Control Board, told the House Ways and Means Committee on April 24 that the board is recommending changes to the state’s cannabis license fee schedule, a limited pilot to allow cultivators to sell through a retailer‑hosted farmers’ market, and reconsideration of a sunset on using excise tax revenue to help fund the board’s operations.

The proposal follows a statutory check‑in required by Act 164 and three years of operating data. "The first thing that the cannabis board was required to do when we were seated was to report back to this committee, with a fee structure that was … sufficient to fund the duties of the Cannabis Control Board," Pepper said, summarizing the board’s charge under the statute.

Why it matters: The board’s fees and how they are structured affect market entry for small craft cultivators, the revenue available to fund regulation, and the retail price of cannabis — which influences whether consumers shift to the unregulated (illicit) market or to intoxicating hemp products allowed by federal law. Pepper told lawmakers the board balanced a goal of prioritizing small craft operators with the need to generate sufficient regulatory revenue.

Market snapshot and budget numbers provided to the committee show the regulated industry in Vermont includes several hundred licensed businesses and generated taxable sales of about $124.3 million in fiscal 2024, yielding roughly $17.4 million in excise tax and about $7.5 million in sales tax that year. Pepper said fees collected between July 1, 2024, and March 15, 2025, totaled about $2.4 million; the board’s FY 2026 budget request is about $6.5 million, with an…