Does smoking ban include medical marijuana?
The New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act includes a ban on smoking medical...
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That’s the amount of revenue state Democratic lawmakers expect from the taxation of recreational marijuana in the fiscal 2019 budget.
“Recreational is not in place yet, so there can’t be a score on it,” Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-22nd District, told NJBiz.com. “I think [the state] had originally scored recreation at a certain level, and you can’t score something on recreational for budget process until it’s in law, and it’s not a law yet.”
The lawmakers have budgeted $60 million in revenue from taxes on medical marijuana.
The fate of Scutari’s Senate Bill 2703, which combines medicinal and recreational legislation, seems unlikely to pass before the June 30 deadline, NJ Cannabis Insider reported last week.
Gov. Phil Murphy’s original budget proposal estimated $80 million in revenue from marijuana taxes. The state treasury lowered that projection in May to $69 million from both recreational and medicinal cannabis.
Murphy has threatened to veto the $36.5 billion budget the state legislature passed. June 30 is the deadline to enact a fiscal 2019 state budget and avoid the prospect of a government shutdown.