California has made headlines for months regarding possible reparations for specific citizens.
Now, its official. The reparations task force has recently approved recommendations for how the state can compensate black people for slavery.
Fox News reports, The nine-member committee deliberating on the recommendations for two years voted in Oakland, California on Saturday evening to give final approval to an extensive report that offers proposals that will then go to state lawmakers in Sacramento to consider for reparations legislation.
The possibilities include several recommendations with detailed descriptions of how to make the reparations. One of the recommendations is to calculate the precise amount owed for things like housing discrimination and police brutality. This calculation would involve creating a new agency to take on the task of calculating and distributing the money.
One thing discussed was making a public apology to the descendants of slaves for the injustice they still face today. The apology would involve the state taking responsibility for previous actions, such as housing discrimination, and promising not to repeat those actions. The state would apologize in front of people that are ancestors of slaves.
Panel members also suggest direct payments to the ancestors of slaves instead of amounts in other forms.
The committee will deliver the final report after the last meeting on June 29. However, the committee did not put an official price tag on the amount of the final reparations.
Previous estimates by another committee set the price tag at approximately $800 billion, which is why this issue remains controversial. The state currently has a projected budget deficit of around $22 billion.
That final large total insinuates that higher taxes on white people, which may not have had ancestors that were slave owners, may be footing the bill. However, California has yet to declare how it will pay for reparations.
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