Last year, a California task force released a landmark report calling for reparations for Black residents that could total hundreds of billions of dollars. But the state's new $298 billion budget, signed Saturday after California's finances fell into dire straits, starts at a much more modest $12 million.
The budget proposal doesn't call for immediate cash payments to Californians whose lives have been affected by injustice, instead promising some state funding if lawmakers agree to proposals that supporters see as early steps to repairing California's past results.
The state's effort has been criticized for offering too little in the wake of a broad, methodical report that uncovered the state's troubled history and offered recommendations to fix it, but some lawmakers still welcomed the funding as a first step after the state struggled to make up a $47 billion shortfall.
“I saw it as a victory,” Rep. Lori D. Wilson, a Democrat who represents Northern California and chairs the Legislative Black Caucus, said in an interview Saturday. “The fact that it was in the budget means that our voices were heard.”
While many state lawmakers have so far steered clear of calls for direct cash payments, they have pushed for ideas such as establishing a California Freedmen's Affairs Bureau and giving preference to black people, “especially applicants who are descendants of persons enslaved in the United States,” for professional certification.
The state House on Thursday placed on the November ballot a measure that would amend the state constitution to ban forced slave labor, even for state prisoners. The measure is part of a reparations bill announced by the Legislative Black Caucus in January.
Other parts of the Congressional Black Caucus bill are still waiting for votes from lawmakers, but $12 million of the budget could be used to implement ideas passed before the legislative session ends Aug. 31.
Some proposals would require relatively little funding, such as a formal state apology for “perpetuating the harms of racist prejudice against African Americans.” The proposal is estimated to cost less than $150,000, part of which would go toward a plaque commemorating the apology in the state capitol.
The alternative is much more financially challenging: A plan to remedy what the bill defines as “racially motivated eminent domain” cases could ultimately cost state and local governments hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a legislative analysis released Friday.
California is not the only US state where the reparations debate is brewing. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson created a task force on reparations this month, less than a year after New York state created a commission to make nonbinding recommendations to state leaders. The Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, has offered housing subsidies in an attempt to break with its tradition of redlining, and San Francisco's task force has proposed the city pay $5 million to everyone who qualifies.
As California officials consider their options, one challenge is that the state's once-robust finances have plummeted, after officials wildly overestimated state revenues last year.
The state is set to dip into its reserves by about $5 billion in the fiscal year that begins Monday, an unsettling outlook that comes just two years after posting a record surplus and is expected to influence how lawmakers view reparations-related proposals and nearly every policy issue they consider in the coming weeks.
Wilson suggested the chaos has made the $12 million even more desperate, and state officials “know they have to lay the groundwork.” While some lawmakers have sounded bullish about eventually securing the cash grant, it's unclear when lawmakers will launch a sustained campaign for it.
Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state's grappling with history, which began in earnest after the killing of George Floyd in 2020, “goes beyond cash handouts.” The comment caused an uproar, but many still took it as a practical assessment of the often messy politics of reparations.
“I recognize and acknowledge the painful parts of our history,” Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez, a Republican who represents a southeast Los Angeles district, said at a committee hearing on a reparations measure this month. But she added that “the pain of our past should not be paid for by people today.”
Wilson said he expects California's discussions will continue for some time.
“We're going to introduce a bill on reparations every year,” Wilson said, acknowledging that it could take a decade or more for a series of bills to work their way through Sacramento's power structures.