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Tupper Lake village board sets cannabis hearing date

Cannabis bud (Photo provided via Wikimedia Commons)

TUPPER LAKE — The village board here has scheduled a public hearing on its plans to opt out of allowing cannabis sales before its annual village organizational meeting on Dec. 6 at 6:15 p.m.

The board is planning to opt out of allowing cannabis dispensaries and on-site consumption licenses for businesses within the village — at least at first. Village Mayor Paul Maroun said he’d like to reap the tax revenue from allowing these businesses to open, but he’s concerned about how the state will regulate these businesses and he worries some regulations might put more strain on village departments, like the police department.

The board has to take action on opting out soon, if it chooses to. The deadline to opt out is Dec. 31. Otherwise, the village will automatically be opted in. This upcoming hearing will be the public’s only chance to voice their thoughts on the matter before the board takes a vote.

The town council has chosen to opt in to allowing cannabis businesses, agreeing to take no action at its last meeting.

Opt-out reasons

When the state legalized recreational, adult-use cannabis earlier this year, it gave local governments the option of opting out of allowing dispensaries and issuing on-site consumption licenses. But there was a caveat. Governments that opt out can opt in later at any time, but if they opt in, they can’t opt back out.

Maroun and several other village board members saw this as their one time to avoid any possible cannabis business rules they don’t like.

The state started the Office of Cannabis Management to govern and implement the new law, but it has not yet decided on the rules and regulations for how cannabis business licenses will be rolled out. Maroun said they likely won’t be released until well into next year.

Following the rules

In the village’s November meeting, the board passed a resolution signalling it would like to opt out, but later found out to opt out it must pass a local law and hold public hearings first.

Trustee Ron LaScala was out of town during this meeting, but afterward said the board acted too fast by passing the resolution and said they have to do things “the right way.”

He felt this discussion was held when he was out of town on purpose, as he’s the only board member who wanted to opt in from the start. LaScala, who did not run for reelection this year, attended his last village board meeting last week.

“We’re not in any position to be saying no to businesses,” he said.

But he doubts the board’s plans to opt out will last.

“Do I think that’s going to stop legal marijuana sales in Tupper Lake? No,” LaScala said. “They haven’t even been able to stop illegal marijuana sales in the history of Tupper Lake.”

Permissive referendum

Municipalities opt out by passing a local law.

That local law, as with all local laws, is subject to a permissive referendum, meaning town residents have 45 days from the adoption of the law to gather enough signatures — 10% of the village’s voters who cast ballots for governor in the last gubernatorial election — to force a public vote.

Tupper Lakers cast 1,804 ballots in the 2018 gubernatorial election, so 180 signatures would be needed to force a referendum.

If no petition is filed within 45 days, it automatically becomes law. A board member can also propose a resolution to bring the matter to a public vote.

Tax revenue

The Tupper Lake town board chose to opt in at a meeting earlier this month, by resolving to take no action.

Trustee Jason McClain said the town had “nothing to lose” by opting in. If someone’s going to open a dispensary, he said it would likely be in the village, where the majority of businesses are.

“If we opt in and they say ‘yes,’ they automatically get 50% of our tax revenue,” McClain added.

Freeman Klopott, a spokesman for the state Office of Cannabis Management confirmed this, adding that local governments can also reach a different agreement for the tax revenue split.

“If both town and village opt-in, the revenue is distributed based on an agreed upon distribution agreement between the town and the village. If there isn’t an agreement, it’s split evenly,” he wrote in an email.

A village that opts out of allowing cannabis dispensaries would not be able to collect tax revenue generated by the sale of cannabis. Sales will be taxed at 13% in New York. Of that, 9% would go to the state, 3% to the local government where the sale took place and 1% to the county where that local government is located.

Hearing

The village’s public hearing will be held at the village offices at 53 Park St. on Dec. 6 at 6:15 p.m.

The proposed local law, “Local Opt-out of Adult-use Cannabis Retail Dispensaries & On-site Consumption Licenses,” can be viewed at the village office Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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