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“But they don’t necessarily directly benefit,” Clarkson said this week. “In this case, John will directly benefit from it as an individual craft grower, and that is a little awkward.”
Rodgers defended his testimony in support of H.321 as appropriate given his knowledge of the industry, support as a senator for the 2018 bill that legalized recreational use and the fact that he is unlikely to vote on the bill. While the lieutenant governor casts tie-breaking votes in the Senate, that’s rare.
“My whole time advocating for this is to try to keep the small craft grower in Vermont in business, because those are the ones we want producing,” Rodgers said. “There’s not a single thing in that legislation or any of my proposals that is just for me.”
Rodgers has acknowledged he grew weed on a small scale before it was legal. He now has a license to grow up to 1,250 plants outdoors on his farm in Glover. He also grows hemp. The type of license he has, called a “Mixed Use Tier 4,” also allows him to grow 1,000 square feet of cannabis canopy indoors. He does not grow any indoor weed but says he would like to some day.
He pays the Cannabis Control Board an annual license fee of $9,500, which he believes is too high and wants reduced to $5,500. He has also proposed cutting the fees for outdoor growers in half. But he would double them for large indoor growers.
Under Rodgers’ plan, in the current draft of the bill, fees for the smallest outdoor license, which allows someone to grow 125 plants, would drop from $750 to $375. The fee for those who grow up to 2,500 plants outdoors would drop from $18,000 per year to $9,000.
By contrast, fees for large indoor growers would soar. The largest indoor growing tier, which allows 15,000 square feet of canopy, would pay twice as much as today for a license: $72,000 per year.
The fee for the smaller indoor operations, able to grow up to 1,000 or 2,500 square feet of canopy, would remain the same, at $1,500 and $3,750, respectively.
Rogers argues the revised fees would be fairer because they better reflect the profitability of the operations and the scale of cultivation suitable for Vermont.
Outdoor growers harvest just one crop per year in Vermont, but indoor operations can yield several, he noted. In addition, because indoor growers can closely control environmental conditions, they can raise the kind of bud that commands the highest prices.
The downside is that indoor growing is energy and fertilizer intensive, Rodgers said, arguing that outdoor growing is better for the environment and should be incentivized.
Growers have been calling him for years to complain that the fees are too high and competition from large corporate interests — which he calls “Walmart weed” — is threatening the viability of the craft operations the state wants to nurture.
“The market has dropped like a rock and small craft cultivators that we want to be in business are going out of business left and right,” he told the Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs committee in April.
It wasn’t the first time he testified on the bill. Rodgers convened a roundtable in February during which he and other growers outlined their concerns to a joint meeting of the Senate and House government operations committees.
At the April meeting before Clarkson’s committee, Rodgers worked the room like a pro with close ties to senators. At one point, he jokingly offered to bring cannabis samples if he returned to testify.
“Thank you, Madame Chair, for giving me an hour this morning to educate you about what’s happening in the world of cannabis,” he quipped with a wide smile, knowing full well the committee’s schedule wouldn’t allow half that.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. In your dreams,” Clarkson retorted.
The two served together as Democrats in the Senate from 2013 to 2021 before Rodgers lost reelection. In 2024, Rodgers switched from Democrat to Republican and unseated lieutenant governor David Zuckerman, a Progressive/Democrat.
During his testimony, Rodgers held up a joint in a glass tube and explained how after selling it for $4.20 to a retailer, his company, Farmers Growers, makes only about $1 in profit. He called that “out of balance and absurd,” and argued that is why growers need to be able to sell directly to consumers. Lawmakers are not including that change in the current bill.
License fees aren’t the only change Rodgers favors. During testimony this week, he told lawmakers that the state should revoke licenses for the largest growers, arguing they are flooding the market and causing prices to crash. Absent that, which he said he knows is unlikely, he has proposed the sharp increase in their fees.
He’d like retailers, growers and manufacturers to be able to get special event permits. And he thinks people ought to be able to smoke weed anywhere people can smoke tobacco or vape.
Rodgers dismisses that idea that he has a conflict of interest or is using his office for personal gain. None of the changes would rescue an industry that he described as in free-fall, but they collectively might level the playing field and give small growers such as him a fighting chance.
“If all these changes are made, it might pay for my fertilizer this year,” he said, downplaying how he stands to benefit.
Whether Rodgers has a conflict of interest is a gray area because the lieutenant governor is a member of the executive branch of government, like the governor and his cabinet. But the LG presides over the Senate. It’s a largely ceremonial role, but one that also wields potentially significant power.
Aside from casting those rare tie-breaking votes in the Senate, the LG is a member of the three-member Committee on Committees, which decides senators’ committee assignments. Senators are covered by Rule 71, which bars them from voting on matters in which they have an “immediate or direct interest.”
The rules have been interpreted narrowly to mean that a senator would have to have a direct benefit that no one else receives. For example, teachers can vote on changes to the education fund; state employees can vote on changes to the pension fund; and grocery store owners can vote on changes to lottery ticket sales.
But Rodgers is not a senator. He is a statewide office holder with a $94,000 salary.
All state employees are required to avoid not only conflicts of interest but the appearance of a conflict, said Christina Sivret, executive director of the Vermont State Ethics Commission. But the commission has no power to investigate complaints against statewide office-holders.
A bill that became law last year gives the commission the power to investigate complaints, but not until September 2025. Its implementation may be delayed as part of another bill that is currently under consideration.
Sivret declined to discuss Rodgers’ situation. Senate Secretary John Bloomer declined to opine on whether Rodgers is covered by Rule 71.
Rodgers said his own ethical compass is truer than any formal ethical codes. If someone files a complaint about his activities, he said, he’ll figure out then which rules apply to him.
“People always want to find fault with whatever you’re doing, but I’m going to always stand up for what I think is right,” he said.
“}]] The LG is advocating for legislation that would reduce what he pays to license his Glover cannabis business by $4,000. That’s raising eyebrows in the Statehouse. Read More
