June 16th Special Session

On June 16th, the House of Representatives voted on two huge bills in special session: the legalization and commercialization of marijuana, and the budget implementer. After hours of debate, I voted no on both proposals and wanted to share my perspective with you.

SB 1201: An Act Concerning Responsible and Equitable Regulation of Adult-Use Cannabis

As I wrote earlier in the week, this bill was negotiated in the dark with no input from Republicans, will not deliver the promised financial benefits, and falls short of meeting the needs of societal problems this decision will introduce. I could not support legislation that will harm our children and inevitably invite the same problems we have seen in Colorado.

If you missed it, you can read my comments from before the session here.

SB 1202: An Act Concerning Provisions Related to Revenue and Other Items to Implement the State Budget for the Biennium Ending June 30th, 2023

At 3am on the morning of June 15th, we received an 837 page bill that was meant to implement the policies of the state budget. This proposal was also negotiated without any Republican input, and contained multiple proposals that died during legislative session- some without receiving a public hearing.

Some of these proposals include:

• Delaying property tax relief for homeowners and promised tax relief for businesses;
• Giving felons the right to vote without requiring them to pay their sentencing fines or completing parole;
• Mandating employers to give employees two hours of unpaid time off to vote;
• Reducing funding to the state Contracting Standards Board, which monitors competitive bidding and transparency for state projects;
• Granting DEEP the authority to develop and implement a waste management plan with no legislative input which could potentially include a “pay-as-you-throw” program; and
• Cutting funding from municipalities that have school images, mascots or logos depicting Native Americans without the approval of the tribes.

Circumventing the legislative process to pass these concepts, or any concept, is a blow to transparency and accountability. It is our duty as legislators to properly vet every proposal put before us, and denying us that opportunity by pushing a bill of this size through with limited time is an affront to our democratic process.