California Reparations Task Force advocates for $360,000 payouts despite budget deficit

The California Reparations Task Force is urging the provision of $360,000 in reparations to each black resident, despite the state grappling with a significant budget deficit.

According to Fox News, the 2020 United States Census Bureau identified approximately 2.251 million black individuals living in California, with 1.8 million having at least one ancestor who had been enslaved.

Should the provision become reality, this proposal would push the total cost of reparations to around $640 billion, raising questions as to how the state, which Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has reported is facing a $22.5 billion budget deficit for the upcoming fiscal year, will finance this ambitious plan.

The state legislature, which formed the commission in response to George Floyd's death in 2020, will then vote on the proposal before sending it to Governor Newsom for his signature. However, neither the task force nor any governmental agency has yet proposed a concrete plan for financing the reparations.

Chas Alamo, the principal fiscal and policy analyst for California's Legislative Analyst's Office, attended the Reparation Task Force's second in-person meeting, where he outlined potential steps to execute the reparations plan.

Among the suggestions, Alamo proposed the establishment of a new agency responsible for the distribution of reparations. He explained that the governor's executive branch could initiate the creation of this new agency through a reorganization process, but alternative options also exist.

"Regardless of the path, to initiate a new agency or enact any other recommendation that makes changes to state law, fundamentally both houses from the state legislature would have to approve the action and the governor will have to sign it," Alamo said, as reported by California Black Media, via Washington Examiner.

The task force is expected to submit a final report, accompanied by its recommendations, by July 1.

In a separate development, a city-appointed reparations task force in San Francisco has recommended providing $5 million in reparations to each black resident, amounting to a total of nearly $225 billion, Rebel News reported.