Legislative cutoff looms as LCB staff track kratom bills and a cannabis tax overhaul

Mark Webster, the board’s director of legislative relations, briefed the Liquor and Cannabis Board caucus on the legislative calendar and several bills that could affect agency operations. He noted that the policy committee cutoff is immediate (the next day), fiscal committee deadlines follow in five days and the house-of-origin cutoff is Feb. 17, and said those deadlines are driving intensive committee work across the next two weeks. "Tomorrow's policy cutoff, so most bills need to be voted out of their respective policy committees by tomorrow at the end of the day," Webster said.

Webster highlighted several substantive proposals for the board to watch: multiple kratom bills (he said two include tax or ban provisions while one does not), a cannabis excise-tax overhaul that would reshape excise collection, and a major restructuring proposal—Senate Bill 6,290—that would split the LCB into two full-time, five-member boards, one for cannabis and one for other products. "The cannabis proposal was scheduled for a hearing in Senate Ways and Means this Thursday, but it's been pulled off the schedule after hundreds of people signed up to testify, most in opposition," Webster said, describing deep division within the industry over the excise-tax overhaul.

Board member Holmes asked whether any kratom measures include an outright ban; Webster replied that two do and one does not, and that the Senate may combine elements of the moving bills before sending them to the House. Webster and board members emphasized that some tax-related bills can be treated as necessary to implement the budget and therefore may be exempt from typical cutoffs. The board did not take any formal action during the briefing; staff said they will continue to monitor bills and return with analyses and fiscal notes where appropriate.