California Reparations Committee Chair Proposes Taxing Wealthy

Kamilah V. Moore, the chair of California’s reparations committee, posted several tweets over the weekend that supported taxing the wealthy, or raising estate and property taxes, to pay for payments to black recipients.

Though California entered the Union as a free state in 1850, it has begun considering reparations for slavery, thanks to a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) in the throes of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.

As Breitbart News has reported, the committee has heard analysis that suggests paying each black descendant of slaves about $233,000 each. (San Francisco’s own reparations committee has entertained even more ambitious proposals, such as giving each 10-year resident who identifies as black $5 million.)

Some say the $233,000 payment is insufficient. Moore herself has said that reparations should be $1 million per person.

Over the weekend, as the committee heard testimony from the public, Moore tweeted quotes from a MarketWatch report that cited “experts” who recommended raising taxes on the wealthy or their property.

“Brown said what would be ideal is a reparations tax credit designed to compensate Black taxpayers, but she thinks it would face legal challenges. So she said the next best thing would be “a wealth tax credit applicable to all taxpayers in households with below median wealth.”

“Suggestions for sources of money for #reparations is a state estate tax. (Under federal law, the lifetime estate-tax exemption is $12.9 million for individuals this year.) Their other suggestions include: a mansion tax, a graduated-property tax…” #CRTF https://t.co/ZxDzS4qOup

It is unclear how such a tax could be accomplished, since the California constitution severely restricts property tax increases, thanks to Proposition 13, which passed in 1978 with bipartisan support and has since endured.... (Read more)

Tweets mentioned:

https://twitter.com/KamilahVMoore/status/1619834956817268736

https://twitter.com/KamilahVMoore/status/1619835839282024448

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