ALBANY - Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to lay out his plan to legalize recreational marijuana in New York on Tuesday, the latest major step in the state's move toward allowing the drug for adult use.

Cuomo has said he will include his plan in his state budget proposal, a sure sign he'd like to see a recreational marijuana measure passed before the state's fiscal year begins April 1.

The plan will for the first time answer many outstanding questions since the governor first embraced recreational marijuana late last year, including how much the drug should be taxed and where the revenue should go.

How much should it be taxed?

On Wednesday, Cuomo suggested he wants to keep the tax rate competitive with Massachusetts (17 percent in state excise and sales taxes plus an up-to-3 percent local tax) and New Jersey, which has not yet legalized the drug but is working toward it.

While setting a high price to generate revenue is surely tempting, it could come with pitfalls, Cuomo said.

"If you charge too much, you will drive the business back to the illegal sales because it’s just less expensive to buy it illegally than it is to buy it legally," he told reporters Wednesday. "And since it’s legal anyway, you don’t really have a criminal violation for the illegal purchase.”

A bill sponsored by Senate Finance Chair Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, and Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, is somewhat in line with Massachusetts.

Their bill would apply a 15 percent state excise tax on marijuana purchases and give localities the option to charge an up-to-2 percent local sales tax.

Where should the money go?

A state Department of Health report last year estimated New York could take in anywhere from $248 million to $678 million in revenue the first year marijuana is legalized, depending on how much it is taxed.

But how should that money be divvied up? That's up to debate.

Cuomo's budget should clue the state in on where he stands.

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Krueger and Peoples-Stokes' bill would put 25 percent of the revenue toward education funding, 25 percent toward drug treatment programs and 50 percent toward grants for communities that were hurt by state and federal drug laws.

Historically, marijuana arrests have disproportionately affected communities of color.

On Wednesday, Cuomo said he agrees with the sentiment that the "wealth" generated from marijuana legalization should go toward communities that were hit hard.

"So how do you steer the economic empowerment toward the communities that actually paid the price?" Cuomo said. "That’s something where we’re working on."

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, said that must be part of any final marijuana law.

"I could not possibly see me supporting personally or the Assembly supporting a bill that doesn't give a signal to the communities that have ... suffered the most because of our laws concerning criminalization," Heastie said Thursday on The Capitol Pressroom, a public-radio program.

Will lawmakers pass it?

Cuomo had long been an impediment to legalizing recreational marijuana in New York, calling it a "gateway drug" as recently as early 2017.

But he says his support for legalization has been spurred in part by other Northeast states embracing it, arguing that New Yorkers can simply drive into Massachusetts to get legal marijuana with that state keeping the revenue.

"I think you have to look at New Jersey and you have to look at Massachusetts," he said Wednesday. "They are naturally competitors in the marketplace."

Top lawmakers in the Senate and Assembly have backed legalization, too. But whether it ultimately is passed will depend in part on whether Cuomo and the two houses of the Legislature can agree on a financial structure to make it happen.

"If we're going to do this, the economics have to work for the communities that have been hardest hit by the criminalization of marijuana," Heastie said.

When would marijuana be available?

Another outstanding question is who would regulate the drug and when it would be available.

Krueger and Peoples-Stokes' bill would create a new Bureau of Marijuana Policy to oversee and regulate the industry, with its members appointed by the governor.

The bureau would be required to issue marijuana-growing licenses within 18 months of the bill being signed into law. From there, the licensees would need time to grow it before it can be available for sale.

Cuomo's timeline is expected to be included in his plan Tuesday.

JCAMPBELL1@gannett.com

Jon Campbell is a correspondent with the USA TODAY Network's Albany Bureau.