State leaders battling over legal-pot oversight
Senate President Stan Rosenberg on Wednesday joined his House counterpart in questioning whether the treasurer's office should retain full control over the regulatory body that will enforce legalized marijuana sales.
Rosenberg told Boston Herald Radio that the Committee on Marijuana Policy, which is working towards a June deadline on an omnibus bill, will make recommendations on the form of the state's marijuana industry oversight bureaucracy.
"The committee is going to make recommendations on governance. It's a fair question to raise and ask: Is this the right structure that was in the bill?" Rosenberg said. "But the treasurer's office, they have so much knowledge and so much capacity here, I can't imagine that they won't be playing a role in this."
Treasurer Deborah Goldberg on Monday told the committee that "if it leaves the treasurer's office I think, candidly, the deadlines cannot be met."
The November ballot law established a three-person Cannabis Control Commission appointed by the treasurer, whose office has researched the issue for more than a year. House Speaker Robert DeLeo said last week that it has "not been decided" whether the commission would be under the treasurer's jurisdiction.
Rosenberg on Wednesday said the legislative committee "could propose to add another one or two" members to the commission - and said it could be modeled like the Gaming Commission where members have specific areas of expertise.
The ballot law directs Goldberg to appoint commissioners "based on their experience or expertise in public health, law enforcement, social justice, the regulation and business of consumer commodities and the production and distribution of marijuana and marijuana products."
The medical marijuana industry, legalized under another ballot law, is regulated by the state Department of Public Health.
In a roughly half-hour interview, the Senate president shared his perspective on the 2018 elections for governor and U.S. senator, the Senate's plans for responding to the Trump administration, and the pace of legislative business so far this session - where the only major law has been a pay raise for elected officials.
The full-time Legislature, which barely managed to pass a handful of high-profile bills during a frenzied finish to formal sessions last July, has been largley dormant for eight straight months. Sponsors of thousands of bills are waiting for committees to schedule public hearings on their proposals.
"There's already been 10 public hearings and the committees are starting to do their work, but a lot of that is sort of the day-to-day work that goes on that doesn't get covered in the media," Rosenberg told co-hosts Jaclyn Cashman and Hillary Chabot. Asked if lawmakers would push right up to the deadline on a bill overhauling the state's marijuana law, Rosenberg said, "The important thing is to get it right like we did with casinos."
After lawmakers in December delayed by six months deadlines for the state to implement retail marijuana, Rosenberg said there would be no further delays to the law, and he said establishments could receive licenses sooner than the new deadline of July 2018.
"We made a commitment. We said we would not delay more than the six months, and by the way there's nothing that says they can't open sooner if the work is finished sooner," Rosenberg said.
DeLeo on Tuesday assembled an all-Democrat Trump Administration Working Group to handle legislative responses to policies emerging from the White House. Rosenberg said the Senate would rely on the Senate Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs, chaired by Everett Democrat Sen. Sal DiDomenico, for that task.
"That's why we created the committee, was to expand our interaction with our congressional delegation, to be able to understand what's happening there, to be able to try to influence what's happening there, and to get a heads up so that we can consider what's happening in Washington as we develop state policy," Rosenberg said. "So we will be on it."
Westfield Sen. Don Humason is the lone Republican on the intergovernmental affairs committee.
While questions remain about whether Congress has the votes to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, President Donald Trump has pushed Republican lawmakers to help him fulfill his campaign pledge. On Tuesday, Gov. Charlie Baker, without taking a position on the GOP replacement bill, warned the Massachusetts congressional delegation that the bill would result in $1 billion less federal revenue for Massachusetts in 2020, $1.3 billion less in 2021 and $1.5 billion less in 2022 "with likely a greater annual impact in the years that follow."
"We have to work with all of the other states and get Washington to come to their senses about what they're doing here. They cannot afford to do this. Millions and millions of people are going to lose their health insurance," Rosenberg said Wednesday. The Senate president said DiDomenico is working with Senate Ways and Means Chairwoman Karen Spilka, Senate Majority Leader Harriette Chandler and Health Care Financing Chairman James Welch on "trying to get a handle on what the cost will be."
If the replacement American Health Care Act becomes law, Rosenberg said he would look for opportunities to become more efficient and seek out "additional strategies" for federal funding.
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