By Tim Balk | New York Daily News
Gov. Kathy Hochul is expected to sign legislation creating a commission for the study of reparations in New York, according to the bill’s sponsors.
The Tuesday move would come six months after state lawmakers passed the bill and three years after California became the first state to create a reparations task force.
The New York bill calls for a nine-member commission that would study the effects of slavery in New York and make non-binding recommendations on reparations. Three members would be appointed by the governor, three by the Assembly and three by the Senate.
Slavery was legal in New York State for two centuries and racial wealth gaps persist. Statewide, Black workers make about 74 cents for every dollar earned by white workers, according to federal Labor Department data.
Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages, the bill’s sponsor in her chamber, said she expected Hochul to sign the legislation without any amendments.
“I’m really appreciative of the governor and the Legislature for taking this moment to acknowledge that we need to have a conversation around reparations,” Solages told the Daily News on Monday.
“Tomorrow’s a historic moment where we can finally come together and realize that when we lift up one New Yorker, we lift up all New Yorkers,” the Long Island Dem added.
Sen. James Sanders, the Queens Democrat who sponsored the bill in his chamber, said in a brief phone call that he had “every faith” that Hochul would sign the bill on Tuesday.
The ceremony is expected to be held in Manhattan.
A majority of Americans oppose reparations for the descendants of slaves, according to polling. In a 2021 Pew Research Center survey, 77% of Black voters supported reparations, and 80% of white voters opposed them.
But the plan for a commission to study reparations had broad support in the Legislature. The bill passed 41-21 in the Senate and 106-41 in the Assembly.
“America’s original sin must be resolved,” Sanders told The News in June.
He said he had faith that “the children of Samuel Adams, the children of Tom Paine can meet with the children of Martin Luther King and the children of Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman and make sure that we move the American experiment forward.”
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