Northampton Administrator: County may want to begin thinking about how marijuana will be sold

During the Northampton Board of Supervisor’s meeting’s County Administrator’s report Tuesday night, County Administrator Charlie Kolakowski brought up a topic that hasn’t been addressed since Governor Youngkin took office: marijuana sales in Virginia.

Comprehensive marijuana legislation was pushed by former Governor Ralph Northam and passed by the Democratic controlled General Assembly, but no plan was made on how the product could be legally delivered to users. Republicans simply did not take the issue up in the two years they controlled the House of Delegates, saying the Northam plan was too bad to even begin to touch.

Now that Democrats have retaken the House of Delegates and held on to the Senate in November’s elections, the issue is likely to be resurrected.

“Leadership in the General Assembly has said this is one of their priorities,” said Kolakowski. “Localities need to be discussing how to allow it.”

Kolakowski also reported COCA funding for Accomack and Northampton Counties has made it into Governor Glenn Youngkin’s budget, which is an excellent starting point for the line item.

However, Kolakowski also pointed out that split government in Richmond creates a lot of uncertainty in the budget process.

“There are serious disagreements between Governor Youngkin and Democrats, we may well could be looking at another stalemate and a delayed budget.”

Finally, Northampton’s Administrator reported on another idea floating around Richmond, Governor Youngkin’s call to eliminate Virginia’s car tax. Kolakowski reported Northampton County currently takes in $3 million annually from car taxes as well as $1 million in revenue from personal property taxes. He said this a significant amount for the County and the proposals are questionable as to how it could affect County revenue.