Differing views on how to rewrite the voter-approved measure that legalizes recreational marijuana are set to clash on Beacon Hill this week as first the House, and then the Senate vote on their differing versions of how to tax the once criminalized herb.
The Joint Committee on Marijuana Policy will meet Monday to adopt a new version of the House's preferred bill so that it can move on to the full chamber for a vote Wednesday. That vote was supposed to occur last Thursday, but was delayed after errors in calculation lead Speaker Robert DeLeo to pull the legislation back into committee before action.
"On Monday we'll be back in executive session on the redrafted bill, based on the concerns of members of the committee and members of the House as a whole and other interested parties. We will be proceeding on a vote on the new redrafted bill to release from committee and to be on the floor Wednesday for full debate," House Marijuana committee chairman Mark Cusack (D-Braintree) said.
The House's bill would raise the tax rate on marijuana sales to 28 percent, which would be the second highest in the country. The House is expected to pass that bill Wednesday, when the Senate will take action on it's own version.
Competing legislative language from the Senate, drafted by Sen. Patricia Jehlen, preserves the voter approved 12 percent excise tax. The Senate could vote on it's own language as early as Thursday.
In order to get a compromise bill to Gov. Charlie Baker's desk before their self-imposed deadline of July 1, the House and Senate will have to find common ground and settle on a tax rate.
