After weekend-long negotiations, lawmakers are cautiously optimistic they may reach a deal before the legislative session ends Wednesday.
By Vivian Wang and Jesse McKinley
Lawmakers
in New York are mounting a renewed and frantic push to legalize
marijuana before the legislative session ends on Wednesday, even as
debates about revenue and political blowback that doomed an earlier
attempt have threatened to derail the effort again.
Staff
members from the State Senate, Assembly and governor’s office met
throughout the weekend, the first time they had engaged in three-way
negotiations since the previous push fell short.
One
of the initial obstacles was a disagreement on how and where to
allocate revenue from marijuana sales. Progressive legislators had
initially sought to designate fixed percentages of marijuana revenue for
reinvestment in communities that have been most harmed by the war on
drugs. But Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had wanted looser language, which would
have given the executive branch more control over the revenue.
Since then, lawmakers have introduced a revised bill that would grant Mr. Cuomo more say in the distribution of funds.
They
are also discussing a provision that would allow localities to opt in
to legalization. Previously, they had sought to include an opt-out
clause, but several counties, including both on Long Island, had already
declared their intention to do so.
“Do
we mandate that localities must do things or do we leave the decisions
to the local governments?” Mr. Cuomo said Monday in an interview on WAMC
radio. “That is what we are talking through.”
At
stake is a potential billion-dollar market in the nation’s
fourth-largest state. But it remains unclear if the invigorated effort
will be enough to overcome strenuous opposition from law enforcement
officials, parent-teacher associations and lawmakers wary of alienating
those constituencies.
And even among
proponents, questions of who should be allowed to sell marijuana and who
should receive the revenue have threatened the viability of a deal.
As
uncertainty continued to surround marijuana, several other issues
seemed to be gaining legislative clarity as the clock ticked toward
Wednesday’s end-of-session deadline.
Supporters
of e-scooters were cheering a legislative agreement to allow the swift,
eco-friendly devices in city streets, though they would not be allowed
in Manhattan, where there were concerns about adding to already
maddening traffic. E-bikes would be allowed statewide.
And
in a radio interview on Monday morning, Mr. Cuomo expressed confidence
in a variety of other measures, including several he has been promoting
in recent weeks: eliminating the so-called “gay panic” defense
in criminal cases and allowing gestational surrogacy, an issue that has
struggled in the State Assembly in the face of opposition from several prominent female lawmakers.
The
governor also predicted success for new legal standards for sexual
harassment — revoking a condition that it must be “severe and pervasive”
— as well as an extension of a program to promote government contracts
for women and underrepresented minority groups that expires at the end
of this year.
There continued to be questions, however, about several other proposals, including one to end the use of long-term solitary confinement
in jails and prisons and offer other more rehabilitative units.
Mr.
Cuomo said he agreed that solitary confinement needed reforms but that
he was hesitant to spend more on “new prison cells.” The governor also
cast doubt on a proposal to decriminalize prostitution, saying he doubted there was enough time to seriously consider such an idea.
“I don’t think people are going to do that,” he said, “on 48-hour notice.”
For
proponents of marijuana legalization, the small chance of passage was a
far cry from earlier this year, when a regulated adult-use market
seemed more assured, after Democrats won majorities in both chambers of
the State Legislature, and Mr. Cuomo backed the idea for the first time
in December. But negotiations collapsed in April, in the face of a well-coordinated opposition campaign and the demise of a parallel effort in New Jersey.
Marijuana Legalization Hits a Wall: First in New Jersey, Then in New York
Afterward,
supporters in New York blamed infighting. They pointed to disagreements
between Mr. Cuomo and progressive lawmakers about revenue allocation,
as well as recriminations between activists and the medical marijuana
companies, which the activists had sought to cut out of the new
recreational market.
But
over the past two months, supporters have sought to bridge those
divides. Late last month, a coalition of progressive activists, medical
industry officials, organized labor representatives and cannabis
entrepreneurs agreed at a meeting to develop a shared strategy to
counter anti-legalization groups.
The
Drug Policy Alliance, a grass-roots pro-legalization group, hired
Kivvit, an influential lobbying and public relations firm, for $17,500
for the month of June. The medical marijuana companies, which are
working with Mercury, another lobbying firm, are planning a phone
banking campaign to urge New Yorkers to call their legislators.
“It
seemed simple to us. Sharing information and collectively shaping
strategy is the best way for all our varying goals to be met,” said Adam
Goers, the president of the New York Medical Cannabis Industry
Association. “It’s too important to operate in silos.”
Still,
even supporters acknowledged that some issues might remain intractable.
The influential Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian legislative
caucus last week reaffirmed its support for the revised bill, sponsored
by Crystal Peoples-Stokes, the Buffalo Democrat who serves as Assembly
majority leader.
Ms. Peoples-Stokes
said on Monday that she still believes that the major stumbling block is
the issue of reinvesting the money in communities affected by mass
incarceration. “That, for both the speaker and myself, closes the deal,”
she said, referring to Carl E. Heastie, the Bronx Democrat who is the
Assembly speaker. “We’ve got to have that.”
She
said that Senate and Assembly staff were still discussing the deal, but
that she had not heard from Mr. Cuomo. She also said it was possible
the Legislature would pass a bill, and simply send it to the governor’s
desk.
“It’s always a good scenario
when you do have everybody on the same page; it makes life easier for
everybody,” she said. But, she added, “there always is the option” of
the Legislature just passing the bill, as it did last week with the rent
reform package. “I think that could quite possibly be the scenario,”
she said.
Ms. Peoples-Stokes was certainly not ready to concede defeat.
“There’s still conversations going on,” she said. “So I remain optimistic.”
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