Montana lawmakers debate changes to how marijuana tax revenues are used

HELENA — Because the Montana Legislature’s 68^th session nears its three-quarter mark, lawmakers are a number of totally different visions for the way the state will use marijuana tax income going ahead.

Initiative 190, the 2020 poll measure that legalized leisure marijuana in Montana, laid out proposed methods to spend the tax income from authorized gross sales. In 2021, the Legislature reshaped these funding allocations when it handed Home Invoice 701, the invoice that finalized the authorized framework for the adult-use marijuana program. The distribution of marijuana taxes has remained a giant subject this session.

I-190 known as for about half of the cash to go to public lands. The biggest share – 37% – was deliberate for the Habitat Montana program, which makes use of state funds for wildlife habitat conservation initiatives. It additionally proposed shares for habit companies, assist for veterans and their households, and Medicaid-funded well being care suppliers.

Nonetheless, the state structure doesn’t permit citizen initiatives to acceptable cash, that means the Legislature had the ultimate say on how the income would truly be used. HB 701 lowered Habitat Montana’s share to twenty%, maintained funding for different public lands accounts and for veterans’ companies, added a fee for disaster intervention coaching and directed the primary $6 million per yr to Gov. Greg Gianforte’s HEART Fund – used as matching funds to herald federal assist for substance abuse therapy and extra Medicaid companies.

On Friday, the Montana Home gave preliminary approval to Home Invoice 669, sponsored by Rep. Invoice Mercer, R-Billings, which might preserve the appropriation for the HEART Fund however take away all different particular allocations. The remaining income would go into the state common fund.

HB 669 handed a preliminary vote 65-35, with all however three Republicans in assist and all Democrats opposed. Mercer mentioned the invoice was meant to make a degree that initiatives can’t – and shouldn’t – acceptable cash.

The invoice was amended in committee to offer one-time-only funding for the packages that at the moment obtain marijuana tax income: $8.7 million for Habitat Montana, $5.25 million for different public lands packages and $2.5 million for veterans’ companies – plus $2.5 million for conservation districts, one other space lawmakers have checked out utilizing marijuana cash.

“We’ll protect the established order,” Mercer mentioned. “However from this level ahead, once we come again in 2025, that cash will all be going into the final fund, and we could have a contemporary have a look at how we need to prioritize spending.”

Opponents of HB 669 mentioned it was the Legislature, not I-190, that established the present spending, they usually criticized the thought of taking away assured funding sources for these packages.

“Actually, the voters had an opinion on how the cash needs to be spend,” mentioned Rep. Kim Abbott, D-Helena, the Home minority chief. “And we do not have to observe the voters’ opinion on that – however simply because we do not have to, doesn’t suggest that we must always ignore them.”

On the Senate aspect, a price range committee has superior an alternate proposal for marijuana taxes.

Senate Invoice 442, sponsored by Sen. Mike Lang, R-Malta, would have initially eliminated the 20% of income earmarked for Habitat Montana and directed it to enhance rural county roads, with a deal with bettering entry to wildlife habitat. Nonetheless, the Senate Finance and Claims Committee amended it this week, protecting the street funding and placing one other 20% into a brand new “Habitat Legacy Account” that might fund Habitat Montana and different wildlife and conservation initiatives.

The amended SB 442 handed by Finance and Claims unanimously on Thursday. The complete Senate will debate it on Monday.

Gianforte’s price range proposal supported redirecting marijuana tax income from Habitat Montana. The governor has repeatedly mentioned that this system has greater than sufficient funding and doesn’t want that income.

Lawmakers are contemplating extra adjustments to marijuana legal guidelines than merely how the taxes are used. On Friday, the Home endorsed Home Invoice 903, sponsored by Rep. Mike Hopkins, R-Missoula, 82-18. That invoice would clear up a loophole in HB 701 that prevented marijuana growers from increasing their operations whereas utilizing the licenses assured to every Montana tribe. It will additionally finish a provision permitting current marijuana growers within the state to shortly develop their cultivation actions.

On Thursday, the Senate Enterprise, Labor and Financial Affairs Committee voted down Senate Invoice 546, sponsored by Sen. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, which might have fully eradicated adult-use dispensaries in Montana. The committee had beforehand rejected Home Invoice 351, sponsored by Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe, R-Billings, which might have additional restricted how marijuana companies in Montana can promote, and Home Invoice 611, sponsored by Rep. Jane Gillette, R-Bozeman, which might add extra required warnings to marijuana labels.