NY budget eliminates $229K salary of Cannabis Control Board chair

Brendan J Lyons

05-08-2025

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 month-long 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 New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus.

She also practiced law at Brooklyn Legal Services and private firms after graduating from Duke University and the University of Chicago Law School.

Wright could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Last year's outside review of the embattled cannabis agency’s operations had revealed widespread problems that triggered what state officials said will be a major “overhaul” after litigation, poor communication and a stalled licensing system had hobbled the establishment of New York's retail marijuana industry. 

“We’re going to transform OCM itself. It’s past time for OCM to move from a startup mode into a fully operational regulatory agency,” Hochul said a year ago.

Hochul announced Alexander’s departure last year — which was first reported by the Times Union — during a news conference at the Capitol that took place as he and other cannabis officials were listening to public comments during a monthly Cannabis Control Board meeting occurring at the same time. 

Hochul had said he would assist with the leadership transition before pursuing “other opportunities,” but that agreement apparently fell apart and Alexander left the position abruptly last summer.

The overhaul of the troubled cannabis office included taking steps to improve communications with stakeholders, expedite the filling of vacant positions and ensuring that applicants for licenses were no longer left twisting in the wind for months or longer. The outside report, issued by a task force led by Jeanette M. Moy, commissioner of the Office of General Services, faulted the cannabis office’s “relatively inexperienced leadership” and a lack of centralized operations, among other issues.

Wright had escaped any criticism of her leadership of the board even as Alexander’s tenure had been rocky from the start. A mountain of litigation, regulatory missteps, allegations of favoritism for some retail industry applicants and repeated missed deadlines have overshadowed the rollout of an industry that — more than three years after marijuana was legalized — has seen just more than 120 retail shops open across the state.

The rollout was further harmed by the proliferation of illicit marijuana shops that exploded across the state. They have been fueled, in part, by the lawmakers' decision to immediately legalize marijuana possession when the law was passed in April 2021 — long before the retail market would begin taking shape. Many law enforcement agencies have been reluctant to target those shops or street sales because of the decriminalization of the drug and criticism that marijuana arrests for decades had unfairly impacted minority communities.

A former OCM official, who spoke on the condition of not being identified, told the Times Union last year that Alexander had frequently rejected advice and recommendations as regulations — including those intended to prioritize “social equity” applicants — were being put in place outside the boundaries of the 2021 law. It was many of those changes, the person said, that became the target of multiple lawsuits that temporarily shut down the rollout due to court orders and decisions by judges who found they were unlawful or unconstitutional.

That person said there was also a culture of favoritism within the agency.

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 month-long 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 New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus.

She also practiced law at Brooklyn Legal Services and private firms after graduating from Duke University and the University of Chicago Law School.

Wright could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Last year's outside review of the embattled cannabis agency’s operations had revealed widespread problems that triggered what state officials said will be a major “overhaul” after litigation, poor communication and a stalled licensing system had hobbled the establishment of New York's retail marijuana industry. 

“We’re going to transform OCM itself. It’s past time for OCM to move from a startup mode into a fully operational regulatory agency,” Hochul said a year ago.

Hochul announced Alexander’s departure last year — which was first reported by the Times Union — during a news conference at the Capitol that took place as he and other cannabis officials were listening to public comments during a monthly Cannabis Control Board meeting occurring at the same time. 

Hochul had said he would assist with the leadership transition before pursuing “other opportunities,” but that agreement apparently fell apart and Alexander left the position abruptly last summer.

The overhaul of the troubled cannabis office included taking steps to improve communications with stakeholders, expedite the filling of vacant positions and ensuring that applicants for licenses were no longer left twisting in the wind for months or longer. The outside report, issued by a task force led by Jeanette M. Moy, commissioner of the Office of General Services, faulted the cannabis office’s “relatively inexperienced leadership” and a lack of centralized operations, among other issues.

Wright had escaped any criticism of her leadership of the board even as Alexander’s tenure had been rocky from the start. A mountain of litigation, regulatory missteps, allegations of favoritism for some retail industry applicants and repeated missed deadlines have overshadowed the rollout of an industry that — more than three years after marijuana was legalized — has seen just more than 120 retail shops open across the state.

The rollout was further harmed by the proliferation of illicit marijuana shops that exploded across the state. They have been fueled, in part, by the lawmakers' decision to immediately legalize marijuana possession when the law was passed in April 2021 — long before the retail market would begin taking shape. Many law enforcement agencies have been reluctant to target those shops or street sales because of the decriminalization of the drug and criticism that marijuana arrests for decades had unfairly impacted minority communities.

A former OCM official, who spoke on the condition of not being identified, told the Times Union last year that Alexander had frequently rejected advice and recommendations as regulations — including those intended to prioritize “social equity” applicants — were being put in place outside the boundaries of the 2021 law. It was many of those changes, the person said, that became the target of multiple lawsuits that temporarily shut down the rollout due to court orders and decisions by judges who found they were unlawful or unconstitutional.

That person said there was also a culture of favoritism within the agency.