California, which never allowed slavery, is nonetheless considering giving hundreds of billions of dollars to Black residents in reparations as a way to make amends for slavery, raising practical questions about how a state already facing a massive budget deficit could swing such an expensive program.
The California Reparations Task Force, which was created by state legislation in 2020, is weighing a proposal to dole out just under $360,000 per person to approximately 1.8 million Black Californians who had an ancestor enslaved in the U.S., putting the total cost of the program at about $640 billion.
"If California can admit its sins and change the narrative, then there is a way forward for states and cities across the nation," California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who wrote the bill creating the task force when she served in the state assembly, said last week.
However, it is unclear how California would pay for such an extensive project. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who signed the bill creating the task force and appointed most of its members, announced in January that the state faces a projected budget deficit of $22.5 billion for the coming fiscal year.
The figure represented a striking downturn from last year, when the state enjoyed a surplus of about $100 billion due to federal COVID relief and surging capital gains.
To make matters worse, the California Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO), a government agency that analyzes the budget for the state legislature, estimated in a subsequent reportthat Newsom's forecast undershot the mark by about $7 billion, thanks to about $10 billion less in tax revenues than expected.
