Albany Times Union. May 31, 2023.

Editorial: A hard row to hoe

The state encouraged cannabis growers to “jumpstart the industry.” Some who did have reaped a bumper crop of disappointment and frustration.

Here’s a cannabis-infused word problem to start your day: Let’s say you’re going to roll a joint. Your average American marijuana cigarette, according to research from the University of Pennsylvania, contains .32 grams of marijuana. How many joints could you roll from the approximately 300,000 pounds of cannabis New York farmers are sitting on, unable to sell?

Here’s a cannabis-infused word problem to start your day: Let’s say you’re going to roll a joint. Your average American marijuana cigarette, according to research from the University of Pennsylvania, contains .32 grams of marijuana. How many joints could you roll from the approximately 300,000 pounds of cannabis New York farmers are sitting on, unable to sell?

The answer: more than 425 million. That’s right: There’s enough to share a J with every adult in the United States, plus every adult in Canada, Germany, Poland, Sweden and Australia — and you’d still have some left over.

Ridiculous? You bet. But not nearly as ridiculous as the fact that about 300,000 pounds of marijuana is sitting unsold after New York state told growers last year to dive in to the state’s recreational cannabis industry.

It’s worth remembering some of the happy quotes from February 2022, when Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation allowing the first round of cannabis growers to get licenses: Growers would “jumpstart the safe, equitable and inclusive new industry we are building,” the governor said. And from Chris Alexander, director of the state Office of Cannabis Management: “With this bill, we’re putting New York farmers, not big corporations, at the forefront of our industry.”

Well, they’re at the forefront all right – or call it the front lines, taking the risk and absorbing the damage, stuck with product they cannot sell. Meanwhile, final state cannabis regulations have yet to be released and the state has opened a grand total of 12 retail shops. Twelve. (Bonus points if you noted that’d be 25,000 pounds of surplus per store.)

Farmers and other entrepreneurs bought into New York state’s vision. Some of them put their livelihoods on the line to buy into this “safe, equitable and inclusive new industry.” Some are now eyeing bankruptcy.

They upheld their end of the deal. But the state has kept moving its timelines as it works to craft regulations and figure out processes. Key appointments were delayed for months. And then a court order suspended licensing in some places because of a dispute over the state’s selection requirements.

It wasn’t a natural disaster like flooding that made this crop unsellable. It wasn’t an ordinary market fluctuation. This is a disaster of New York state government’s making — and farmers cannot be expected to shoulder this loss.

One proposed solution is to allow the growers to sell their cannabis directly. That’s not workable. We’re not talking about a roadside stand here; establishing a customer base and the logistics of packaging, transport to markets, security and so forth is not something farmers can come up with on the fly – especially when another growing season has already started.

Another idea has been to allow “pop-up stores” to sell it — temporary businesses that would open quickly and be run by retailers who are waiting for full approval. Frankly, we’re skeptical. Cannabis degrades over time, becoming less potent, even in ideal storage conditions — which many growers aren’t set up to provide. Given the pace of state decision-making on cannabis, there’s a good chance that crop will just be sitting for months, declining in quality and value, as the state hashes out even a “pop-up” system. Though if that model will boost retail entrepreneurs — too many of whom are also losing money because of state delays, paying rent on empty storefronts — sure, get that ball rolling.

But as for 2022’s crop? The state should buy it and destroy it. And then try to get its act together for next year.

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Jamestown Post-Journal. May 25, 2023.

Editorial: What Stops Legislature From Helping Small Businesses Rather Than Just Talking About It?

We hope some members of the state Senate didn’t hurt themselves patting themselves on the back last week while talking about how they need to do more to help small business.

We ran reiterate all of the small business statistics and rankings. There’s the Forbes rankings that showed New York ranking the worst for small business due to the state’s high cost of living, high unemployment rate and a 79% small business survival rate. Or there’s the annual Tax Foundation rankings of small business climate that placed New York 49th in the country. Even the Motley Fool rankings place New York right in the middle at 25th in the country, with its total score dragged down for tax climate.

Our question to them, in particular Senate Democrats who can by and large do whatever they choose, is this — what’s stopping you from doing more to help small businesses?

Is it spending some almost half of a 90-minute day in session passing worthless resolutions, as happened last week when the Senate spent 40 minutes pontificating over resolutions that do little but fill senators with warm fuzzy feelings in their bellies? Is it an inability to get on the same page with fellow Democrats who control the state Assembly and governor’s office?

We can’t answer those questions. We do know, however, that years of beautiful speeches in Albany have resulted in a state that continually makes it more and more difficult to run a small business. They’ve said the right things. If only they had done the right things.

What are some of those right things, you may ask? Continued minimum wage increases are hurting small businesses when combined with other policy actions taken over the past few years. Democrat-led bills to phase out plastic containers used by restaurants is hurting restaurants, many of which are the very definition of a small, family owned business. The state has placed its pandemic-fueled unemployment insurance cost increases firmly on the back of its business community rather than using state tax dollars to pay back billions of dollars owed to the federal government. Increasing energy costs fueled by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act are hurting businesses just as much as they hurt everyone else right now.

Those are a but a few of the decisions New York has made. More will come by next May’s Small Business Month. The beautiful speeches will change, but New York’s unfriendliness to small business will not.

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New York Post. May 30, 2023.

Editorial: Funny how Kathy Hochul’s decisions keep serving hubby Bill’s interests

Several of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decisions touching on her hometown Buffalo area serve the interests of Delaware North, her husband’s employer.

As a senior vice president and counsel at DN, Bill Hochul draws over $650,000 a year, and of course could score a nice retirement package after his wife leaves office.

Each spouse has declared a recusal from the other’s business but with no enforcement mechanism in sight.

And the multibillion-dollar gaming, hotels and concessions company keeps doing well off the gov’s decisions, reports The New York Times.

Most recently, a late-appearing provision in the new state budget restructures the public-private board overseeing the Batavia Downs hotel and casino, which Delaware North has been looking to acquire.

Last year, Hochul slapped Seneca Nation, whose gambling enterprises compete directly with DN’s, by freezing tribal assets to force it to hand over $564 million in casino payments the state said it owed.

Hochul then used $418 million of the money to subsidize construction of a new Buffalo Bills stadium, even as DN was seeking to renew its Bills concessions contract.

(It’s now out of the running, though the company could get something else of value down the line.)

And now Team Hochul is negotiating a new gaming compact with the Senecas for the state’s share of gambling receipts, as well as defining the Nation’s exclusivity territory in the Buffalo area — which, again, is Delaware North’s area, too.

Pay-to-play allegations have surrounded Gov. Hochul’s handling of state deals for COVID test kits, Medicaid transportation contracts, $600 million in public money for that new Buffalo Bills stadium and the efforts to redevelop Penn Station and its environs.

The only way the gov could start to clear the air on the hubby front is to verifiably release all communications involving herself, her staff, Delaware North and probably the Bills and the Senecas too.

Taxpayers have every right to demand proof the gov isn’t helping out her husband.

Kathy Hochul vowed to be more transparent than her disgraced predecessor, but “more straightforward than Andrew Cuomo” is a laughably low bar.

She can and should do a lot better.

END

News from © The Associated Press, 2023