Gov. Gavin Newsom deals blow to reparations effort in California

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom dealt a blow to legislation linked to the state’s groundbreaking reparations efforts on Wednesday.

He vetoed Senate Bill 1050, which would have restored property taken under racially-motivated uses of eminent domain to its original owners or provide another remedy, such as restitution or compensation.

“I thank the author for his commitment to redressing past racial injustices,” Newsom said in a statement, referring to state Sen. Steven Bradford. “However, this bill tasks a nonexistent state agency to carry out its various provisions and requirements, making it impossible to implement.”

The agency that would have carried out the policy would have been created if Senate Bill 1403 passed the legislature. The bill, also introduced by Bradford, was intended to create an agency to carry out the recommendations of the state’s groundbreaking first-in-the-nation Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans.

It failed following last-minute changes from the Newsom administration that instead aimed to to support further research on reparations in the state instead of creating the agency to carry out reparations recommendations from the state task force, according to local news outlet CalMatters.

Newsom signed Assembly Bill 3131, which requires the state department of education to prioritize funding for socioeconomically disadvantaged communities, on Sept. 22.

This bill would require the department, in consultation with the executive director of the State Board of Education, when determining grant recipients for the California Career Technical Education Incentive Grant Program, to first give priority consideration to applicants in historically redlined communities, as determined by the department. The same would apply to the K–12 Selection Committees, when determining grant recipients under the K–12 component of the Strong Workforce Program.

Several other bills from a legislative reparations package from the California Legislative Black Caucus are awaiting a response from Newsom. The package aimed to capture the many forms that reparations can take, according to Assemblywoman Lori D. Wilson, chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus.

“While many only associate direct cash payments with reparations, the true meaning of the word, to repair, involves much more,” said Wilson in the introduction of the legislative package.

She noted that the package addressed the need for “a comprehensive approach to dismantling the legacy of slavery and systemic racism.”

This legislative package was born out of California’s first-in-the-nation state-backed task force that found the state and various arms of its government played an active role in perpetuating systemic racism against Black Californians through discrimination in housing, education and employment.

The bills that await a response from Newsom include Assembly Bill 3089, which would issue a formal apology from the state of California for “all of the harms and atrocities committed by the state” for perpetuating racial discrimination through chattel slavery, segregation, unequal disbursal of government funding and more.

This bill “declares that such actions shall not be repeated” and “commits to restore and repair affected peoples with actions beyond this apology.”

Senate Bill 1089 would address food and health inequities by requiring advance notification if a grocery store or pharmacy is closing in an underserved or at-risk community.

The other 10 bills from the California Legislative Black Caucus’ 14-bill reparations package failed to make it through the legislature.

The bills that failed to make it through the legislature included bans on involuntary servitude and solitary confinement in state detention facilities, funding for violence reduction programs, and funding “for the purpose of increasing the life expectancy of, improving educational outcomes for, or lifting out of poverty specific groups.”

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