Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D) said on Tuesday that the legislature is “really, really, really close on marijuana” following negotiations with executive staff office over recent weeks. “We have gotten past the impasse of the impaired driving.”
“We are looking to get language that will I think be satisfactory in the next day or so,” she said during a virtual press briefing.
While that language isn’t available yet, Stewart-Cousins said the legislation will likely contain a provision providing additional tax dollars for law enforcement to be trained to identify impaired driving.
Legislators also signaled last week that Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) had ceded to them on two other key components: one to allow adults to cultivate cannabis for personal use and another concerning how to allocate marijuana tax revenue for social equity purposes.
Senate Finance Committee Chairwoman Liz Krueger (D), sponsor of the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA), said she’s “extremely pleased with the agreement that we have come to.”
The legislature has also made clear that, despite the governor’s prior longstanding push to pass legalization through the budget, the issue will be handled as a standalone bill outside of that process. Stewart-Cousins confirmed on Tuesday that that’s still the plan.