Committee approves coding cannabis civil-penalty receipts to general fund after statutory ambiguity
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Summary
The Interim Finance Committee approved a work-program revision to clarify coding of civil-penalty receipts for the Cannabis Compliance Board. The board's CFO said statutory language did not clearly earmark such penalties for the state education fund and that actual penalties collected to date are far below earlier projections.
Lisa Figueroa, chief financial officer for the Cannabis Compliance Board, told the committee a housekeeping issue in statute left unclear whether civil penalties should default to the State Education Fund or to the General Fund. Figueroa said the department initially projected authority for $1.5 million in civil-penalty receipts but that actual revenues to date total "just shy of a hundred and $40,000." She said the agency will now code civil-penalty receipts directly to the General Fund.
Why it matters: The committee considered and approved a work-program revision to remove an anticipated $1.5 million of authority that could have been coded to the education fund; fiscal staff and the Cannabis Compliance Board said the projection was preliminary and the realized receipts are far smaller.
Committee action: The committee approved the work-program revision (agenda item E17) on a motion and voice vote.
Quote: "Initially, the $1,500,000 was based on a projection... To date, we have only collected just shy of a hundred and $40,000 and that money has been deposited directly to the General Fund," Lisa Figueroa said.
Ending: Committee members asked for confirmation that future civil-penalty receipts will be coded to the General Fund; the board said deposits will be coded directly to the General Fund and will not pass through the board's budget account.
Sources: Lisa Figueroa, CFO, Cannabis Compliance Board; Senator Titus (questioning).
