California reparations update

“The State of California acknowledges the work of the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, with a Special Consideration for African-Americans Who are Descendants of Persons Enslaved in the United States.”
-From Assembly Bill 3089
It’s official. On Sept. 26, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill issuing an apology for California’s involvement in the slave trade ending in the 19th century. Properly titled Assembly Bill 3089, it was authored by Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer (57th District), and is a symbolic gesture.
The ongoing push to acknowledge California’s culpability in the country’s slave era of yesteryear continues to navigate the bureaucratic maze of the state legislature. Two of the state bills proposed by State Sen. Steven Bradford (35th District) , Senate Bill 1403 and SB 1331 were vetoed by Newsom in early August. They would have established an agency to oversee claims from the descendants of slaves who believe they’d lost property through eminent domain or taking real estate for public use (SB 1403), and establish funding for those whose ancestors suffered damages at the hands of the government due to their ethnic heritage, i.e. African slaves (SB 1331).
In September, Newsom vetoed SB 1050, which would have provided compensation for land taken in racially motivated scenarios. More recently, he signed Assembly Bill 3089 which essentially was an official state apology for California’s role in the institution and legacy of slavery in the United States.
In the 20th century, reparations were largely centered on compensation involving war damages on an international level. By the turn of the millennium, the question of slave reparations was focused internally in the United States by lawmakers such as the late Rep. John Conyers, (D-Mich). While technically a “free state” the labor of indentured Africans was utilized in the “Golden State” during the Gold Rush of 1849. In its aftermath, California has led the way in its groundbreaking efforts to right past wrongs.
Complicating the issue is the vacillating state budget, which went from an estimated $97 billion budget surplus in 2022 (largely derived from mostly personal income taxes), to a $31.5 billion deficit in 2023. The current budget is an estimated $44 billion in the red, due to sluggish revenues from the state’s tech industry, along with diminished tax returns from the state’s top wage earners. These figures come from the state non-profit news outlet Cal Matters. In the event any related legislation could survive the arduous journey through the machinations of the state bureaucracy, the approval of such a massive endowment would be a monumental phenomenon.
Cal Matters initiated a calculator of sorts to determine the potential windfall due to a Californian of African descent, coming to roughly $1.2 million per individual, provided they’ve lived in the state at least seven decades. This figure includes punitive damages for such injustices as housing discrimination, inadequate health care, loss of potential business opportunities, mass incarceration, and so on.
For updates on this drama unfolding in the Golden State, go to Black Caucus website at https://blackcaucus.legislature.ca.gov/, and Coalition For A Just & Equitable California website at https://www.cjec-official.org/.