House Majority Whip Jazz Lewis (D-Prince George’s) sports his Washington Commanders scarf after the House of Delegates adjourned Thursday. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)
Important items of business Thursday for House Majority Whip Jazz Lewis (D-Prince George’s) included advising delegates that the chamber would meet in person on Monday and playing a snippet of the Washington Commanders fight song over the House sound system.
Lewis was not alone. With the Commanders scheduled to continue their improbable season with a game Sunday for the NFC championship against the Eagles in Philadelphia, it seemed that every other delegate wanted to conclude their remarks Thursday by wishing Washington well.
But Lewis may have been the most into it. Not only is he a lifelong fan of the team, but he also represents the district where the Commanders play, at Northwest Stadium in Landover. After his announcement, he held his cell phone near his microphone to broadcast a few seconds of the team’s fight song.
“It’s Washington’s time,” Lewis, who was sporting a Commanders scarf, said in a brief interview after the House adjourned. “We’ve been in the wilderness for a long time, but there’s a land that was promised full of milk and honey, and we’re hoping that we will be delivered there. I’m just hoping that this weekend we are victorious against the Eagles. I got friends in Philly. It’s our time, baby.”
The winner of Sunday’s game advances to the Super Bowl in New Orleans on Feb. 9.
Del. Christopher Adams (R-Middle Shore) started the “Go Commanders!” praise when he made an announcement on behalf of “the Washington Commanders delegation.”
“Let me just say I’ve been in office for 11 years. I have not worn my [Commanders] jersey. Hopefully you will see me get to wear this jersey one more time,” Adams said on the House floor.
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Not everyone was a well-wisher: After Del. Jared Solomon (D-Montgomery) announced a House Jewish Caucus event Monday, he warned delegates against asking “where I was born and raised in advanced of this weekend’s game.” Solomon, born in Philadelphia and raised in the city’s suburbs, is an Eagles fan.
Del. Caylin Young (D-Baltimore City), a Baltimore Ravens fan, had a backhanded compliment for Commanders fans, especially those from Prince George’s and Montgomery counties “who have not experienced winning [and] understand a winning culture.” (The Ravens have played in 32 playoff games since 2000, and won two Super Bowls, according to Pro Football Reference.)
“As a member of the General Assembly, Maryland is in a position of winning. We’re grateful to have two football teams that are successful,” Young said in a brief interview after Thursday’s floor session. “To see the Commanders and indeed their fans, finally, finally have something to celebrate. It’s good to give them [his colleagues] a little mentorship as a Ravens fan on how to be a gracious winner.”
Speaking of teams…
Gov. Wes Moore (D) announced two key hires this week, tapping a New York regulator to run the Maryland Cannabis Commission and a former federal official to be his top immigration adviser.
Moore hired Kamal Essaheb as a senior adviser and director of immigrant affairs, a new position within state government. Essaheb will lead strategic planning and policy development on immigration, in addition to overseeing community and stakeholder engagement and services management. The position will be part of the Governor’s Office of Community Initiatives, though Essaheb will also report directly to the governor’s office.
The Maryland General Assembly created the Governor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs in 2021. The office engages with nonprofit organizations and other support program providers to help connect immigrants to resources, employment referrals and workforce development programs.
Essaheb most recently served at USAID, where he spearheaded the agency’s efforts to address the challenges and harness the opportunities that migration offers our country. He also served in the Department of Homeland Security, leading visa initiatives for workers. Before working in government, Essaheb was deputy director at the National Immigration Law Center, where he oversaw the organization’s policy, communications and litigation strategies.
“Kamal Essaheb has spent his career advocating for the needs and interests of immigrant communities across the nation, and we are grateful that he has raised his hand to serve Marylanders in this new role,” Moore said in a statement.
Essaheb said he would help the state navigate the “complex and ever-evolving” federal immigration laws.
“Immigrants make Maryland stronger — as our educators and caretakers, our entrepreneurs, or our neighbors,” he said.
Tabatha Robinson, the new director of the Maryland Cannabis Administration. Photo from the New York State Office of Cannabis Management.
Meanwhile, Moore this week nominated Tabatha Robinson to be director of the Maryland Cannabis Administration. Robinson will succeed former director Will Tilburg, who stepped down in December 2024. She will serve in an acting capacity while awaiting Maryland Senate confirmation of her appointment.
Robinson currently serves as executive deputy director of economic development and acting chief equity officer for the New York State Office of Cannabis Management, where she crafts economic programs and social equity licensing policies for New York’s adult use and medical cannabis markets. During her tenure, the office has awarded more than 50% of new cannabis licenses to social equity business owners; more than 90% of operational retailers have prior marijuana convictions.
Robinson has also worked as a corporate attorney, focusing on strategic transactions and mergers and acquisitions and as special assistant attorney general for workers’ rights in Washington, D.C.’s, Office of the Attorney General.
“In Maryland, we are transforming cannabis policy from a cudgel to an instrument for shared prosperity and economic advancement,” Moore said. “We are grateful that Tabatha Robinson is lending her expertise, judgment, and vision to this critical work.”
Robinson, who will assume her new role on Feb. 19, said she was determined to build on Maryland’s reputation as “a national model” in the cannabis industry.
Tips and ask
Advocates seeking to eliminate a lower minimum wage for tipped workers in Maryland and those seeking to raise the overall minimum wage in the state have hit on a new tactic: Ask the voters to approve it.
Legislation to mandate that tipped workers receive the same minimum wage as the rest of the workforce — currently $15 an hour in Maryland — has run into opposition in the General Assembly. Two years ago, when the governor tried to legislate an automatic annual increase to the minimum wage, indexed to inflation, he was rebuffed. Before then, getting state policymakers to agree on boosting the minimum wage so it eventually hit $15 an hour was a multiyear undertaking.
Del. Adrian Boafo (D-Prince George’s) and advocates listen to Christian Nunes, president of the National Organization for Women, at an Annapolis event on tipped wage workers. (Photo by Josh Kurtz/Maryland Matters)
So now progressive lawmakers and advocates affiliated with the group One Fair Wage are hoping to send both questions — a $20 an our minimum wage, and boosting tipped workers to that level — to voters, via a 2026 ballot initiative.
“Maryland would be at the cutting edge of raising this to $20 an hour,” said Del. Adrian Boafo (D-Prince George’s), who is sponsoring the legislation with Sen. Cory V. McCray (D-Baltimore City).
The bills would gradually increase Maryland’s minimum wage from $15 to $20 an hour by 2030; phase out two-tier wage structures to ensure tipped workers earn the full minimum wage with tips on top; remove tips from state income tax calculations, modeled after federal legislation currently supported by President Donald Trump; provide tax credits of up to $10,000 for restaurants and small businesses to help with the transition to higher wages; and require businesses to disclose how service fees are distributed.
“This isn’t just about taxes on tips,” said Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage. “It’s about ensuring that tipped workers — disproportionately women and people of color — can earn a fair wage with tips on top.”
More than a dozen tipped workers came to an Annapolis news conference Thursday to show their support for the measures. Blake Vincent, a bartender in Washington, D.C., which has eliminated the lower minimum wage for tipped workers, said the higher pay “gives me the stability I need to make plans for my future.”
Kadija Sheriff, a tipped worker in Maryland, called earning $3.63 an hour “absurd,” and added, “Our rent and bills don’t fluctuate with the economy, but our tips do.”
Advocates came armed with recent polling results showing strong support for raising the minimum wage and eliminating the two-tiered system for tipped workers, and Christian Nunes, president of the National Organization for Women, was on hand to lend her support.
“There should be no place in the United States where a tipped wage worker is making $3.63 an hour,” she said. “You can’t even buy a loaf of bread with that.”
The bills would require a 60% vote in both houses of the legislature before the issue can be placed before voters during the 2026 election. That doesn’t make the advocates’ task any easier.
Calling all bills
While it’s still relatively early in the General Assembly’s 90-day session, Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) urged senators to draft and file legislation as soon as possible to avoid holding up the legislative process for some 500 bills.
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“There are 375 bills currently that have been drafted. The sooner we can get those in, the sooner we can get them in the cue and get them scheduled,” he said Thursday. “There are also another 250 bills that are in request, and in the midst of drafting.
“So, that’s 375 that are drafted and ready for the hopper, and another 250 that have not been drafted yet,” he said. “Not all of them will get in at the end, but it’s another 500 bills that are going to have to be navigated this session. So, just keep that in mind.”
So far, 493 Senate bills have already been filed this session. The House has filed 648. Last session, a total of 2,728 bills were filed, and 1,053 passed both chambers.
Sen. Johnny Ray Salling (R-Baltimore County), also wants bills, but for a different reason. As vice chair of the Veterans Caucus, he wants to see veteran-related bills so the caucus can endorse them.
“The veteran’s caucus has met, and we’ll continue to do that, but one of the concerns is that we need your bills,” he told the senators. “If you have a veterans bill, we would like to look at them.
“We go through all the bills and we endorse them as the veterans caucus has done. We want to know your bills,” he said. “We want to get to know them and move them forward quickly.”