In an effort to help Black families reclaim or receive compensation for property unjustly taken by the government, California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill on Wednesday.
The bill aimed to create a process for families to file claims with the state if they believed their property was seized through eminent domain due to discriminatory motives and without fair compensation.
However, the proposal could not take full effect on its own, as lawmakers had blocked a separate bill that would have created a reparations agency to review these claims.
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“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 backed by the California Legislative Black Caucus this year, aimed at addressing decades of policies that contributed to racial disparities for Black Americans. Other proposals sent to Newsom’s desk by the caucus include measures requiring the state to formally apologize for slavery and its lasting impacts, strengthen protections against hair discrimination for athletes, and address the banning of books in state prisons.
Democratic state Sen. Steven Bradford introduced the eminent domain bill following the 2022 decision by Los Angeles-area officials to return beachfront property to a Black family, nearly a century after it was taken from their ancestors through eminent domain. Bradford described the bill as a crucial step in the “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 lineage and implement future reparations programs, as well as a measure to establish a fund for reparations-related legislation.
However, 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 expressed concerns about legislative oversight of the agency’s operations and declined to comment on the reparations fund bill, as it was not part of their priority package.
The decision followed a push from the Newsom administration to revise the agency bill into legislation allocating $6 million to California State University to study the implementation of the reparations task force’s recommendations, according to a document with proposed amendments shared by Bradford’s office.
Last month, when contacted by The Associated Press, Newsom’s office declined to comment on the reparations agency and fund proposals, citing a policy of not publicly weighing in on pending legislation.
Earlier this year, the Department of Finance opposed the eminent domain bill, noting that it was not specifically included in the budget. The agency estimated that the cost of implementing the bill could range “from hundreds of thousands of dollars to low millions annually, depending on the workload required to accept, review, and investigate applications.”
