California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill on Wednesday that aimed to assist Black families in reclaiming or receiving compensation for property that was wrongfully taken by the government. The bill proposed a process for families to file claims if they believed their property had been seized through eminent domain due to discriminatory reasons without fair compensation.
The legislation was part of a broader effort by the California Legislative Black Caucus to address historical injustices and promote reparations for Black Americans. However, the bill's effectiveness was limited because lawmakers had previously blocked another bill that would have established a reparations agency to review such claims.
State Senator Steven Bradford, who introduced the bill, cited the 2022 case in which officials in Los Angeles returned beachfront property to a Black couple, taken from their ancestors a century earlier. He described his proposal as essential for creating a framework for reparations and correcting historical wrongs.
In addition to the eminent domain bill, Bradford also put forward a proposal to create an agency to help Black families trace their ancestry and implement reparations programs. However, the Black Caucus blocked the reparations agency and fund proposals from getting a final vote due to concerns about legislative oversight.
The Newsom administration had previously pushed for the agency bill to be reworked into a plan that would allocate $6 million for California State University to study how to implement reparations recommendations. The Department of Finance expressed opposition to the eminent domain bill, noting that its costs were unclear but could range from hundreds of thousands to low millions of dollars annually, depending on the workload involved in processing claims.
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