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Both houses of the state Legislature approved legislation (A.11562/S.10643) that would create a wage board for the state's cannabis industry.
It's a bill that both state Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, and Sen. Liz Krueger, D-New York City, opposed in the state Senate. It's one of the few areas of cannabis policy on which Borrello and Krueger have found agreement on over the past few years – a fact that we hope will help sway Gov. Kathy Hochul as she decides whether or not to sign the legislation and create a wage board for a fledgling industry made up of small businesses throughout the state that are trying to establish themselves.
Krueger and Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, both voted against the wage board legislation in part over concerns that more than 40% of the industry’s businesses in New York are not profitable and many have already begun cutting staff hours as a result. And, the legislation comes with a requirement that private businesses publicly disclose their pay scales.
The bill comes in part as a response to a federal lawsuit filed against the Office of Cannabis Management and Cannabis Control Board challenging the state's requirement that legalized marijuana license holders have to enter into labor peace agreements with unions.
Cannabis trade associations have asked Hochul to veto the bill over concerns that mandatory wage rules will increase business’ operating costs while some industry groups are concerned that passing higher costs for legal marijuana on to customers will simply send more customers to street dealers – whose product is already less expensive than product available in license-holding shops. That's a particularly valid concern because the state has legalized possession of marijuana – meaning buyers of illegal marijuana face no legal repercussions if they go back to illegal sellers as long as they possess 3 ounces or less of cannabis flower or 24 grams or less of concentrate in public.
Hochul should be wary of any action that makes life harder on small cannabis businesses that are already heavily regulated by the state as well as any policy that has the potential to drive customers back into the pre-2021 marijuana black market.
Borrello and Krueger haven't agreed on much when it comes to marijuana. The fact they found agreement on A.11562/S.10643 should speak loudly enough to send a clear message to the governor.