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Draft adjusts excise tax, employee licensing and creates grants; committee asks fiscal and implementation analysis
Summary
The committee heard proposals to lower the cannabis excise tax from 14% to 10%, move local fee distributions to annual payments, adopt two‑year employee ID cards with a $100 biennial fee, repeal 'integrated' license references, and fund business development grants and land access loans.
Legislative counsel said the draft contains a suite of fiscal and licensing changes. Under the reader assistance heading in the draft, the excise tax would be lowered from 14% to 10%; local license fee disbursements would switch from quarterly to annual payments after administrative deductions. The draft proposes two‑year employee ID cards and sets the biennial employee license fee at $100 (replacing a $50 annual fee), which counsel said requires input from the Cannabis Control Board on administrative feasibility.
The committee also reviewed statutory cleanup striking references to an 'integrated license' and said those provisions are being repealed in several sections. Counsel described proposed grants from the cannabis business development fund to tier 1 cultivators, manufacturers and businesses with economic empowerment status. The bill text directs a FY27 transfer of $1,000,000 from the general fund to the cannabis business development fund and an appropriation of $5,600,000 to the Vermont Land Access Opportunity Board for loans and grants.
Members asked the Joint Fiscal Office for revenue impact analyses and for the Cannabis Control Board to testify on implementation costs and administrative burdens before the committee advances the fiscal sections.
