WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th March, 2023) California's plan to compensate Black residents for centuries of slavery, racism and discriminatory practices could cost the state over $815 billion, an amount that more than doubles the state budget, economists told a state panel in a draft report released on Wednesday.
"To estimate the state's maximum liability from (housing) redlining reparations, the average-per capita housing wealth gap in 2021 Dollars is multiplied with the number of Black California residents in 1980, yielding $569,362,181,760," the draft report, which was submitted to the state's Reparations Task Force, said.
In addition, the economists said it would cost more than $246.5 billion for reparations related to disproportionate Black non-felony drug arrests.
The given estimate is 2.5 times higher than California's total annual budget, which currently sits at approximately $300 billion, and would not include property the repatriations task force says was taken unjustly, nor would it count the devaluation of Black-owned businesses.
California Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer, who sits on the repatriations committee, told AP before a task force hearing on Wednesday that they need to have "an open mind and come up with some creative ways to deal with this."
Earlier, another reparations panel in San Francisco called for providing $5 million to each of the city's Black residents.
The task force has until a July 1deadline to agree on a cash amount to recommend to lawmakers on how much California should give to its Black residents.
The task force is set to discuss and possibly vote to adopt the suggestions or come up with alternatives on Wednesday and Thursday.
