After months of delay and backroom disputes, state lawmakers are expected to finally begin voting next week on legalizing marijuana for adults over age 21 in New Jersey.
And it's getting the fast-track treatment, even though legislative leaders and Gov. Phil Murphy remain at odds over details of the legislation.
Separate state Assembly and Senate committees will meet together for a hearing of debate and are expected to vote on the legalization bill on Monday, Nov. 26 at 10 a.m., according to sources familiar with the plan.
A draft of legislation submitted to Gov. Phil Murphy last week held taxes on recreational sales at 12 percent, which would make New Jersey‘s tax rate one of the lowest among states with a legal cannabis program, according to three sources with knowledge of the most recent draft. Local governments would be able to impose a separate excise tax on sales of up to 2 percent.
Earlier this year, administration officials said they’d like to see recreational marijuana taxed at around 25 percent — a rate legislative leaders said would allow the drug’s underground market to thrive.
This excerpt is from Governor Phil Murphy’s address to the League Delegates Luncheon of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities Annual Conference in Atlantic City on Nov. 15:
I remain equally committed to sensible legislation to legalize adult use marijuana, and to continue to expand our medical marijuana program, which can also be an important tool to fighting our opioid epidemic.
State Senate President Stephen Sweeney has targeted Nov. 26 for a committee vote on legislation to legalize adult-use cannabis, expand the medical marijuana program and provide social justice.
“We’ll have [a bill] out of both committees by the end of the month,” Sweeney told reporters at the League of Municipalities conference in Atlantic City on Nov. 14. “There’s a medical bill. There’s an adult-use bill. And there’s a separate social justice piece that Sen. [Sandra] Cunningham is doing. We want to do all of them together.”
I remain equally committed to sensible legislation to legalize adult use of marijuana, and to continue to expand our medical marijuana program, which can also be an important tool to fighting our opioid epidemic.
I know that some of you have already taken steps in your communities to prevent such sales once I sign a legalization bill into law – and, make no mistake, assuming the Legislature gets it to me, I will.
Bad relationships with leaders in his own party, a weak response to sexual assault allegations against a staff member and unprecedented fiscal challenges have hampered Gov. Phil Murphy’s first year in office, according to a bipartisan panel of former governors and current academics.
They gave Murphy less than stellar grades this week at the New Jersey State League of Municipalities’ annual conference at the Atlantic City Convention Center, in a popular annual panel.
Another month has gone by, another "deadline" has been missed and another state has voted to legalize weed before New Jersey.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, set a goal of voting on legal weed by Oct. 29. It was the fourth "deadline" missed by the Legislature, which creeps closer to missing Gov. Phil Murphy's vow of legalizing marijuana before year's end.
Now, legislators are targeting the Monday after Thanksgiving as the next milepost in the push for legal marijuana in New Jersey.
But don't bank on it.
State Senate President Steve Sweeney said recently that legislative reform of the state’s public workers’ pension and health insurance plans will make New Jersey a more affordable place to live.
You know what else the state can do to make living here less like doing hard time on taxation island? Follow through on the promise to legalize recreational marijuana and use the additional revenue to provide some relief to taxpayers.
We realize it won’t alleviate all of New Jersey’s tax woes, but it sure could help.
With less than two weeks to go before Thanksgiving, it’s looking less and less likely New Jersey will legalize recreational pot before the end of this year.
Gov. Phil Murphy had made legalizing marijuana one of his front-burner issues when he took office last January. But negotiations on a legislative package have stalled.
State Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester, who must sign off on any marijuana bill that’s put up for a vote, is making it clear he’s drawn a line in the sand over how much the state should tax recreational weed.
State Sen. Richard Codey has no problem with medical marijuana being legal in New Jersey— in fact, he says he supports decriminalizing marijuana altogether. But as legislators in Trenton work out the details of a roughly 150-page bill to create an entirely new — and legal — recreational marijuana industry, Codey is firm: They won't get his vote.