They also cut out…. tax increases for millionaires and state support for children, farmers and veterans.!!
Filter Magazine
Republicans in Wisconsin’s legislature cut key provisions from a state budget proposal by Governor Tony Evers (D) on May 8, including plans to legalize and regulate marijuana.
The changes came in a Joint Finance Committee hearing, where members removed a long list of items included in the governor’s budget. In addition to cannabis legalization, other deleted items include tax cuts for the middle class, tax increases for millionaires and state support for children, farmers and veterans.
Evers said on social media ahead of the vote that “today, Republican lawmakers are gutting my budget that does what’s best for our kids and the folks, families, and communities that raise them.”
The committee’s 21 pages of cuts remove multiple marijuana provisions from Evers’s budget, such as regulation, taxation, licensing and civil and criminal-legal adjustments.
The legalization proposal would have regulated marijuana “much like the state already does with alcohol,” something “over 60 percent of Wisconsinites support.”
The actions are a repeat of 2023, when GOP members of the same committee removed proposals to legalize marijuana for adult and medical use from the governor’s biennial executive budget at that time.
A press release from the governor’s office about the May 8 committee changes says the legalization proposal would have regulated marijuana “much like the state already does with alcohol, which would help Wisconsin compete with other states for talented workers and have more resources to invest in critical state priorities.”
The reform is “a proposal that over 60 percent of Wisconsinites support,” the release notes, pointing to a poll from February.
Evers included the latest marijuana legalization plan in his biennial budget request to lawmakers in February, projecting at the time that the change would result in “$58.1 million in revenue in fiscal year 2026-27 and growing amounts in future years.”
Under current Wisconsin law, cannabis is illegal for both adult use and medical purposes.
The legalization proposal would have imposed a 15 percent wholesale excise tax and a 10 percent retail excise tax on adult-use cannabis products. It additionally sought to “create a process for individuals serving sentences or previously convicted of marijuana-related crimes to have an opportunity to repeal or reduce their sentences for nonviolent minor offenses.”
GOP leaders recently acknowledged that the debate over medical marijuana is “not going to go away,” and there’s hope it can be resolved this session.
The companion bills that were filed in tandem with the governor’s budget request stipulate that all revenue collected from the proposed cannabis taxes would be deposited into the state general fund.
Wisconsin Republicans Cut Marijuana Legalization From Governor’s Budget
