California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes bill to help Black families reclaim taken land

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill 
Wednesday that would have helped Black families reclaim or be compensated 
for property that was unjustly taken by the government.

The bill would have created a process for families to file a claim with 
the state if they believe the government seized their property through 
eminent domain due to discriminatory motives and without providing fair 
compensation.

The proposal by itself would not have been able to take full effect 
because lawmakers blocked another bill to create a reparations agency that 
would have reviewed claims.

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

The veto dealt a blow to a key part of a package of reparations bills the 
California Legislative Black Caucus backed this year in an effort to help 
the state atone for decades of policies that drove racial disparities for 
Black Americans. The caucus sent other proposals to Newsom's desk that 
would require the state to formally apologize for slavery and its 
lingering impacts, improve protections against hair discrimination for 
athletes and combat the banning of books in state prisons.

Democratic state Sen. Steven Bradford introduced the eminent domain bill 
after Los Angeles-area officials in 2022 returned a beachfront property to 
a Black couple a century after it was taken from their ancestors through 
eminent domain. Bradford said in a statement earlier this year that his 
proposal was part of a crucial “framework for reparations and correcting a 
historic wrong.”

Bradford also introduced a bill this year to create an agency to help 
Black families research their family lineage and implement reparations 
programs that become law, and a measure to create a fund for reparations 
legislation.

But Black caucus members blocked the reparations agency and fund bills 
from receiving a final vote in the Assembly during the last week of the 
legislative session last month. The caucus cited concerns that the 
Legislature would not have oversight over the agency’s operations and 
declined to comment further on the reparations fund bill because it wasn’t 
part of the caucus' reparations priority package.

The move came after the Newsom administration pushed for the agency bill 
to be turned into legislation allocating $6 million for California State 
University to study how to implement the reparations task force’s 
recommendations, according to a document with proposed amendments shared 
by Bradford’s office.

Newsom’s office declined to comment to The Associated Press last month on 
the reparations agency and fund proposals, saying it doesn't typically 
weigh in publicly on pending legislation.

The administration's Department of Finance said earlier this year it 
opposed the eminent domain bill because it was not specifically included 
in the budget. The agency said the cost to implement it was unknown but 
could have ranged “from hundreds of thousands of dollars to low millions 
of dollars annually, depending on the workload required to accept, review, 
and investigate applications.”

https://apnews.com/article/california-reparations-eminent-domain-
30e904077112f67690b402a7899120a8