ALBANY – County leaders are lining up to opt out of allowing legal marijuana sales even if New York legalizes the drug.

Executives in Rockland, Putnam and Chemung counties told the USA TODAY Network's Albany Bureau this week they will recommend prohibiting marijuana sales within their borders should Gov. Andrew Cuomo's legalization proposal be approved.

They added their names to a list that already included county executives in Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, who had vowed to opt out earlier in the week.

And the list could continue to grow: Westchester County Executive George Latimer told reporters Thursday he and county lawmakers would consider their options, leaving open the possibility the major suburban county of 980,000 residents would opt out.

Monroe County, too, is weighing how to proceed.

"It's darn close to 50-50 from a Westchester perspective," Latimer said of the public's position on marijuana.

Cuomo's plan includes local opt-out

New York already allows medical marijuana in non-smokeable forms.

But Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, and top lawmakers in Albany have expressed support for legalizing recreational marijuana in New York, pointing to neighboring states like Massachusetts and Vermont that have already done so.

Cuomo has proposed a system for regulating and taxing the drug in his $175 billion state budget proposal, though he has said recently he expects it to drop out of the final product.

That would give him and lawmakers until June to come to an agreement on marijuana.

Cuomo's proposal, however, would allow all counties and larger cities to prohibit marijuana growers and sellers from setting up shop within their borders, provided they pass a local law or resolution.

But it comes with a major catch: Localities only get a cut of the tax revenue if they have cultivators or marijuana shops. And residents would still be permitted to possess the drug, meaning they could purchase it in another county and bring it back to their homes.

Critics weigh in

Rockland County Executive Ed Day, a Republican and former New York City police officer, said he's heard concerns from law enforcement and health officials in his county about legalizing the drug for recreational purposes.

He criticized Cuomo's opt-out provision, calling it "smoke and mirrors" and saying it should allow counties to prohibit possession, too.

Still, he said he will ask the Rockland County Legislature to opt out should lawmakers in Albany approve Cuomo's plan.

"I keep hearing that we're going to make money off this," Day said.

"That's not a reason to pass policy. It's not about money, OK? Because the costs that they're not looking at are the costs that are going to come down the road — new programs, law-enforcement, addiction treatment, impact on families."

It's far from a given that Rockland legislators would support an opt-out. Day is a Republican; The county legislature has a Democratic majority.

Alden Wolfe, the Rockland legislature's deputy majority leader, said it would be "irresponsible" to make a decision before having an "understanding of the impact on our sales tax revenues."

In Putnam, County Executive MaryEllen Odell said her county would opt out.

"After all our conversations with our Commissioner of Health and all of our providers for substance abuse and addiction, combined with discussions with our school superintendents and our local constituents, the short answer is yes, we will be opting out," she wrote in an email.

It's the same story in Chemung County, home to the city of Elmira, where County Executive Christopher Moss — the former county sheriff — said he supports an opt-out, though he said it remains to be seen if the county legislature would support it.

"I don't think the possible revenue outweighs the social issues we're going to see," he said.

Other counties want in

Other county executives weren't so sure.

Jason Garnar, the Broome County executive, said he believes marijuana legalization is an inevitability. And if his county opts out, it wouldn't see any revenue from it but would still see some of the societal costs.

Garnar said he's not considering opting out.

"We would be concerned about opting out because that would mean opting out of the revenues that we would need to deal with something I feel is going to be inevitable," Garnar said.

On Long Island on Wednesday, Cuomo said he supports an opt-out provision because it allows local governments to make their own decisions rather than have them handed down by "bureaucrats in Albany."

"This is a big state," he said. "There's a lot of different opinions, there's a lot of different regions. Different regions have different situations. Long Island has one situation, Buffalo is another situation. So I believe in giving local governments the right to make that decision."

Will it be legalized?

It remains to be seen whether marijuana will ultimately be legalized in New York, as well as what form the opt-out provision may take.

A bill from Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, and Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, would allow communities to prohibit marijuana sales through a public referendum process, which would give voters in the communities the chance to weigh in.

That's similar to what is already in state law for alcohol sales.

Cuomo's proposal, meanwhile, would allow cities with a population of more than 100,000 and all counties to opt out by passing a local law or resolution.

Jesse Sleezer, a spokesman for Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo, said the executive is closely watching the negotiations in Albany and recently met with local police chiefs to hear their concerns.

"Given the existing draft proposal is likely to be debated and altered by the Legislature before final passage, Monroe County is monitoring the legislation’s progress closely to assess its potential impact on our community," Sleezer said in a statement.

In the city of Rochester -- Monroe County's major city -- Mayor Lovely Warren has previously said the city would not exercise the opt-out clause, though Cuomo's proposal suggests the city may be at the county's mercy should Monroe decide to opt out.

Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, a Republican who ran against Cuomo last year, said he hopes the state "slows down and considers all of the impacts" of legalization.

"But, we have not considered opting out," he said.

JCAMPBELL1@gannett.com

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