California grapples with unforeseen expenses in reparations effort
California is currently facing a significant challenge as it grapples with a large budget deficit while simultaneously considering implementing reparations. The state is dealing with a $68 billion budget shortfall, primarily due to decreased revenues in fiscal year 2022-2023. Despite this financial strain, there are proposals suggesting that California could be responsible for up to $800 billion in reparations payments, far exceeding its usual annual budget.
In an effort to address this issue, the California Legislative Black Caucus has initiated a statewide tour to rally support for 14 proposed reparation bills, including two that would amend the state constitution. So far, the California Senate has approved three bills within this legislative package. One of these bills aims to establish the California Freedmen Affairs Agency to assist black Californians in tracing their ancestral lineage to determine their eligibility for potential reparations.
Among the proposed constitutional amendments is a measure to abolish prison labor in the state, an initiative that did not pass in the previous legislative session in 2022. Governor Gavin Newsom has expressed concerns about this measure, suggesting that prohibiting involuntary servitude in prisons could significantly increase state expenses, potentially requiring California to pay minimum wage to imprisoned individuals, which would cost the state an additional $1.5 billion each year.
This situation is further complicated by California’s long-standing practice of employing inmate labor, notably within its Conservation Camp Program, where inmates are trained as firefighters to combat wildfires and are compensated nominally for their work.
California is struggling to figure out how to deal with a massive budget deficit and reparations the state Democrats are looking to turn into law.
The Golden State is currently contending with a $68 billion deficit, a loss mostly due to a decline in revenue during fiscal 2022-2023. Still, it has been recommended the state pay out reparations, with some estimates predicting it could be on the hook for nearly $800 billion paid out, which is three times as high as a typical budget for California.
This week, California’s Legislative Black Caucus embarked on a statewide tour to argue in favor of 14 reparation bills, including two proposed constitutional amendments.
The California Senate passed three of the bills in the legislation, including one that would create the California Freedmen Affairs Agency, which would help black Californians research their family lineage to confirm possible eligibility for future reparations the state would pay out.
The constitutional amendments include one measure that would amend the state’s constitution to outlaw prison labor. The amendment failed to make its way out of the state legislature in 2022.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) previously warned that eliminating involuntary servitude could require the state to pay its inmates minimum wage and cost California $1.5 billion more per year.
California has a long history of using prison labor, including the state’s Conservation Camp Program, in which inmates are trained to become firefighters to fight wildfires. As firefighters, they earn between $2.90 and $5 per day, but upon release, they cannot become firefighters as those with criminal convictions are barred from doing so in the state.
“It’s quite clear we want to eliminate involuntary servitude in California,” state Sen. Steven Bradford, a Democrat, said. “Anything less than that is falling short of the objective.”
“Reparations, as the public have come to understand them, are not popular,” Giuliana Perrone, a historian and professor at the University of California Santa Barbara, told Newsweek.
“That’s because the public does not actually understand reparations. Many imagine that reparations are just payments or benefits given to certain people for past harms that occurred to their ancestors. This is incorrect,” she said. “Reparations are meant to address the specific, ongoing harms that have continued to exist because the nation failed to fully abolish slavery.”
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In 2020, California made history when it became the first state to create a task force dedicated to studying methods to resolve the enduring legacy slavery and Jim Crow-era laws have placed on black people. The task force came back with more than 100 recommendations for the state.
For the task force to be on the ballot for a vote this year, lawmakers would need to get it off the ground quickly as the deadline for finalizing ballot measures is June 27.
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