MSN
ALBANY — The state budget being adopted this week will eliminate the $229,000-a-year salary of Tremaine Wright, a former state assemblywoman who was appointed chair of the Cannabis Control Board by Gov. Kathy Hochul in September 2021.
It’s unclear why the annual salary for the position was eliminated, although salaries that high for state government board positions are rare. The other four members of the Cannabis Control Board receive $260 stipends on the days they attend meetings or events.
The removal of the chairperson’s salary was quietly slipped into a budget bill and was not the subject of any public debate by lawmakers. The decision follows last year’s massive leadership shakeup of the Office of Cannabis Management that included Hochul asking Chris Alexander, the first executive director of the Office of Cannabis Management, to step down following a monthlong review of his handling of the troubled rollout of New York’s retail marijuana industry.
It’s unclear whether Wright, who was elected to the Assembly in 2016 for a Brooklyn district, will remain on the Cannabis Control Board. She is an attorney and, after running unsuccessfully for state Senate, had served as the first director of the Department of Financial Services Statewide Office of Financial Inclusion and Empowerment. Wright is an attorney and small business owner and previously served as chair of the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus.
