New York’s City Council is set to vote Thursday to authorize a controversial a task force to study reparations for black residents — a move that could lead to a call for billions in tax payer spending, as it has in other cities.
The city legislation would charge a nine-member task force with examining the “impact of slavery and past injustices for African Americans in New York City” and determining what, if any, monetary or nonmonetary reparations are necessary.
Minority Leader Joseph Borelli (R) told The Post he would leave the city before he paid reparations.
“I’ll move before I’ll pay,” Borelli said.
“If they can introduce me to one New Yorker who owned a slave I’d be happy to consider it. But until then, I am not paying a dime as a reparation for a harm I did not cause, nor condone, nor once participated in.”
The bill is likely to pass with nearly half of the council’s 51 members signed on as sponsors.
The bill is similar to state legislation signed by Governor Kathy Hochul in December that established a statewide commission to review the same thing. Critics called that bill “divisive” and “unrealistic,” but civil rights activists labeled it history-making.
California was the first state to look at ways to compensate decedents of slaves for historical inequities, and the payouts suggested by the panels were eye-popping.
San Francisco established its own African American Reparations Advisory Committee that proposed paying $5 million lump-sum payments to each Black city resident in 2023. The Hill estimated the California city’s payouts could cost $175 billion.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed nixed that idea when she defunded the city’s reparations office in January.
The state of California also had a task force study statewide reparations. The final report did not come up with a suggested payout, but experts questioned by legislators said it could cost as much as $800 billion.
Councilmember Farah Louis (D), the main sponsor of New York City’s reparations bill, did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
If passed by the council, Louis’ bill will go before Mayor Eric Adams for his signature.
A member of Adams’ administration testified about another reparations bill last fall that did not pass city council.
At that time Sideya Sherman, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Equity, told a City Council panel that the administration supports the “spirit” of the legislation, but it overlaps with the already existing state legislation, and a one-year timeline is too fast and would drive up costs.
Louis’ bill still gives the taskforce 12 months to make its recommendations. During that time the unpaid taskforce would meet and hold public hearings while receiving administrative support from a city agency designated by the mayor.
Taskforce members would be chosen by the mayor and the Speaker.
