Daily Point
Islip’s about-face on retail cannabis
New York’s legal marijuana industry is growing like a weed, and Islip Town wants some of the cabbage.
The Islip Town Board voted 4-0-1 in 2021 to opt out of allowing cannabis retail shops and on-site consumption. Now, Islip wants a piece of the pot.
In 2021, the town cited a number of logistical reasons for the decision, including the lack of a functioning state Cannabis Control Board, which had been wracked with disorder.
In its August 2021 resolution, the town board stated the town could “reconsider opting back in” once oversight improved at the state level.
On Tuesday, Islip set a public hearing for April 8 to consider repealing its opt-out decision. The vote was 4-1 with Supervisor Angie Carpenter dissenting. If the repeal is eventually approved by the town board, Islip would become the fifth township on the Island to give weed the green light.
The amount of money being made by municipalities that do permit legal retail marijuana shops and on-site consumption is enticing.
New York announced last year the state’s cannabis industry reached more than $1 billion in retail sales, and in 2024 alone, the state amassed $757.8 million in adult-use retail sales as of Nov. 30.
Babylon Town received $2.6 million from legal cannabis sales last year. That’s more than a token sum. There are no restrictions on how municipalities can spend the money, an attractive sweetener for politicians facing budget crunches.
Opponents huff and puff about what they see as chronic problems like the lack of buffer zones between municipalities that opted in and those that opted out, and the continued proliferation of illegal pot shops. But in the end, money talks, and with municipalities constrained by the state’s 2% tax cap, legalizing marijuana makes sense.
To assuage community fears, the state says New York’s legal cannabis market is “built on principles of justice and access, to ensure broad economic and social prosperity across the state.”
Or to be blunt, there’s a pot o’ gold waiting for municipalities that allow legal marijuana sales, and that’s not blowing smoke.
— Mark Nolan mark.nolan@newsday.com
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Final Point
East End marks advent of touch-screen ballots
Mailer sent to residents. Credit: Dan Janison
Early voting has been underway for a special election for the Southampton Town Council seat vacated by Tommy John Schiavoni, who was elected last year to the state Assembly to replace longtime incumbent Fred Thiele, who retired.
The ad-hoc contest between Democrat John J. Leonard and Republican Richard W. Martel, both of Hampton Bays, is unique — not necessarily for the candidates or the issues but for how the votes are cast. Town residents for the first time will try out touch-screen machines, the purchase of which has been a source of debate in Suffolk County and across the state.
The county board of elections has mailed instructions to registered voters that urge, “Be prepared and know what to expect before heading to the polls.”
Under the new system, the ballot you receive goes into the machine with an angled corner on the top right; you make selections on the touch screen. You review your selections and can change them before submitting. Then you touch “print” to compare the printed ballot in a window on the right against selections on the screen. Touch “cast” and the ballot is tabulated and put in a secure container.
For Long Islanders, this will be a maiden voyage of sorts for the new machines. Critics say the purchase of these Express Vote XL machines is too expensive and depends on the vendor using bar codes for tabulation, and that there was no compelling reason to replace the technology of recent years, by which hand-marked ballots are placed in tabulators for counting.
Last Tuesday, the Suffolk County Legislature allocated nearly $35 million to the election board to purchase new devices to use across the county. The manufacturer in this case is Election Systems and Software. Officials have said a voting machine from Dominion Voting Systems is also under consideration. (Dominion was the company falsely maligned without evidence by the Trump campaign and by GOP-tied media as fixing results in the 2020 election.)
On Monday, Susan Lerner, executive director of the Common Cause New York good-government group, reiterated to The Point her argument that, “We have not had an honest discussion of what we’re getting into” with a transition that “could have been done more economically and safely.” A lawsuit by Common Cause and others was dismissed in court last spring, but that decision is on appeal.
The official date of the Southampton Town election is Tuesday, and barring delays, the machines are expected to be used in November.
— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com
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