Land Access and Opportunity Board urges 25% of cannabis excise tax for community reinvestment, recommends $1 million for business development fund

A representative of the Land Access and Opportunity Board told the House Government Operations Committee that the board recommends dedicating 25% of cannabis excise tax revenues to community reinvestment and allocating $1,000,000 annually to the Cannabis Business Development Fund to support cannabis businesses, prioritizing social equity licensees.

The recommendation comes from a report submitted earlier this year that the LAOB representative said contains four recommendations, including the $1,000,000 allocation and the 25% dedication of excise tax revenue. "This report includes 4 recommendations, 1 of which is to allocate $1,000,000 to the Cannabis Business Development Fund to support cannabis businesses that are in the sector and, specifically and importantly, social equity licensees," the LAOB representative said.

The LAOB representative framed the request as reparative: because cannabis was previously illegal and policing and sentencing disproportionately harmed poor communities and communities of color, revenue from the now-legal marketplace should help repair those harms. The witness pointed to disparities in homeownership and wealth by race in Vermont and nationally as part of the rationale for directing funds to housing and land access activities.

The LAOB representative described the board's capacity to administer reinvestment funding, saying the board was created by the legislature in 2022, has hired two co-directors and established a memorandum of understanding with the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board to access administrative and accounting capacity. "We have capacity to hire people. This is a big deal that we have that administrative capacity," the representative said, adding that in one year the board supported community organizations in submitting more than $16,000,000 in federal and private grant requests.

Committee members asked about how the LAOB arrived at the 25% figure. The LAOB representative said the Cannabis Control Board (CCB) had recommended 20% in a prior year and that the 25% recommendation reflected comparisons with other states and a recognition that other funding priorities exist (for example, a previously committed 30% to prevention activities). "25% is an amount of money that we can feasibly and realistically manage programming for," the LAOB representative said.

Reverend Hughes, identified as a Land Access and Opportunity Board member and as executive director of the Vermont Bridal Justice Alliance in testimony, endorsed the board's work and urged legislative support, saying the board had been productive and impactful and that current market structures have not provided a sustainable development fund for equity applicants. "We re not going away. We're gonna keep coming back," Hughes said.

Committee staff posted the LAOB report on the committee webpage during the hearing, and the LAOB representative urged lawmakers to review the report's recommendations on community reinvestment and housing.

Ending: The committee did not vote or take formal action on the LAOB's recommendations during the hearing; the LAOB's proposal remained a recommendation for the legislature to consider in H.321 or other legislation.