OCR asks for $1.61 million, reports $200,000 in program revenue, and carries a $248,667 software invoice from December

As of August 7, 2026, the Office of Cannabis Regulation has asked the Legislature for an operating budget of approximately $1.61 million for Fiscal Year 2027, drawn from the General Fund, the Tourism Advertising Revolving Fund, and the Cannabis Fund. The Post Audit Division’s analysis of the same office, filed for the same hearing, puts the recommended total at $1,510,218.

The gap is about $100,000. The Executive Budget recommends $1,160,218 from the General Fund, $100,000 from the Tourism Advertising Revolving Fund, and $250,000 from the Cannabis Fund. The testimony does not break the $1.61 million figure down by fund.

Where the money went in Fiscal Year 2026

OCR received $1,160,218 for Fiscal Year 2026 under Act No. 9035, appropriated through the Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs to cover personnel and fringe benefits. Post Audit reports $1,149,209 allotted as of August 6, or 99 percent, with $11,009 left unallotted. Through July 28, the office had spent $885,425, or 76 percent, leaving $274,794.

The spending breaks down as $428,794 in personnel services, $260,713 in supplies, $178,412 in fringe benefits, and $17,506 in other services and charges.

For Fiscal Year 2027 the office carries nine positions, all unclassified and all General Fund. OCR asked for $660,000 in personnel services against the $675,000 recommended. One position is vacant: Operations Coordinator, at $70,000.

Revenue against appropriation

Operational revenue has grown, and the testimony gives three years of it: $850 in Fiscal Year 2024, nearly $150,000 in Fiscal Year 2025, and nearly $200,000 as of July 31, 2026. Set against a $1,160,218 appropriation, this year’s collections cover roughly a sixth of what the office was given to spend.

Senator Kurt A. Vialet asked at the hearing whether licensing fees would cover the office’s technology costs. Executive Director Joanne Moorehead said they would not, per the St. John Source’s account. Vialet argued the industry should eventually fund its own regulation rather than lean on the General Fund.

The Post Audit analysis complicates the revenue picture. Under its revenues heading, it states that “the office reported collecting $3.6 million in revenues through July 2026” and prints a table totaling $3,687,709. The line items in that table are liquor licenses, entertainment licenses, hotel and restaurant licenses, brokers and agents licenses, commercial licenses, and trade and professional licenses, which are department-wide categories rather than cannabis ones, and the column is headed Actual Expenditures to Date. Both figures, $3.6 million and nearly $200,000, were in front of the same committee on the same morning.

The technology bill

OCR reports investing approximately $500,000 over two fiscal years in the Tyler Technologies licensing and registry platform, and approximately $203,000 in Metrc, the seed-to-sale tracking system. For Fiscal Year 2027 the two contracts total $297,000: $197,000 to Tyler from the General Fund, and $100,000 to Metrc from the Tourism Advertising Revolving Fund.

Post Audit also lists the office’s outstanding accounts payable at $249,284. Nearly all of it is a single Tyler Technologies invoice for $248,667, dated December 31, 2025, entered into the government’s ERP system on February 13, 2026, and carrying the status Awaiting Check Run.

A separate Tyler module for cannabis business licensing and compliance would cost roughly $200,000 a year plus one-time implementation. OCR told the committee it evaluated the module and decided it was not financially prudent, so those functions stay manual. The testimony is blunt about the ceiling on that: “Simply stated, the work envisioned by the Legislature cannot be accomplished at scale through manual processes alone.”

What OCR is asking the Legislature to change

The office says its intoxicating hemp duties under Act No. 9072 “were assigned without a corresponding increase in appropriations or staffing.” Four legislative requests follow from that:

• Explicit authority to collect and retain licensing, application, renewal, fine, and training revenue
• Authority to license government-owned intellectual property created by the office, including branding and training content, to private vendors for royalties paid into the Cannabis Fund
• Cost-recovery authority for expenses tied to a specific licensee or violation, covering laboratory analysis, evidence management, product destruction, and administrative hearings
• Amendments to Act No. 8680 addressing THC-infused food and beverage products

OCR also flagged a cost it left out of the request. Dedicated office space in both districts would run approximately $15,000 to $20,000 per month territory-wide, exclusive of furnishings and startup costs. The office shares space with the Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs and says the arrangement is reaching its limit as enforcement work requires confidential meeting rooms and evidence storage.

What to watch

The committee has not yet voted the Fiscal Year 2027 appropriation, and budget hearings run through August 18. Whether senators fund the $1.61 million the office asked for or the $1,510,218 in the Executive Budget is the first thing to check. The four legislative requests would each need a bill, and none has been introduced. And the Tyler invoice has been sitting since December on the platform OCR calls the backbone of its licensing and registry work.