California state senator Steven Bradford, a member of the state’s Reparations Task Force, is warning black residents that massive reparations payments are “just not happening.”
The Democratic lawmaker’s warning comes after the task force approved a detailed plan that would see the state pay up to $1.2 million in reparations to each eligible black resident, if approved by state lawmakers.
While the report does not say how much the panel’s recommendations would cost the state, economists estimate the housing and mass incarceration-related payments alone could cost more than $500 billion. This despite the state facing a tough fiscal reality: governor Gavin Newsom announced in January that the state is facing a $22.5 billion deficit in the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Bradford said “anything’s possible if the money’s there” but said the reality is it will be difficult to find support for the large payments when lawmakers haven’t even discussed where the money would come from.
“I don’t want to set folks’ expectations and hopes up that they’re going to be getting, you know, seven-figure checks,” Bradford told the Associated Press. “That’s just not happening.”
Los Angeles Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer, also a Democrat, urged a similar tempering of expectations: “We have absolutely no idea right now what will or will not be approved” by the legislature.
The comments come after California governor Gavin Newsom declined to endorse the task force’s recommendations last week.
“This has been an important process, and we should continue to work as a nation to reconcile our original sin of slavery and understand how that history has shaped our country,” Newsom told Fox News. “Dealing with that legacy is about much more than cash payments.”
“Many of the recommendations put forward by the task force are critical action items we’ve already been hard at work addressing: breaking down barriers to vote, bolstering resources to address hate, enacting sweeping law enforcement and justice reforms to build trust and safety, strengthening economic mobility — all while investing billions to root out disparities and improve equity in housing, education, healthcare, and well beyond,” Newsom added.
* Article From: The National Review