Albany adds another wrinkle to its – Latest News
Shocker: Albany is punting on a report from the state’s reparations commission — pushing off its deadline to 2029, 4 years after the unique due date.
That follows a one-year extension granted in 2024, which of course already expired.
Typical: Lawmakers clearly understand (however don’t dare admit) the thought is totally nuts — and unlikely to ever end in important state funds for America’s sin of slavery.
Most doubtless, they’re hoping everybody simply forgets about it.
Maybe some need to drag out the method, to allow them to posture as long as potential, pretending to combat for justice.
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The concept of reparations right this moment for slavery (which was outlawed in New York by 1827, two centuries in the past subsequent 12 months) can be comical if it weren’t so corrosive.
For starters, any broad-based fee plan based mostly on race can be unconstitutionally discriminatory, because the Justice Department is now arguing in a case in opposition to an Evanston, Ill., program to pay blacks for housing discrimination.
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Yet narrowly ID’ing slaves’ descendants is equally fraught.
Meanwhile, funds funded with taxpayer {dollars} would penalize everybody who arrived in New York long after slavery ended and their descendants.
Should a Korean or Ukrainian who arrived final 12 months have to pay for pre-1827 slavery — which concerned victims and victimizers all long useless?
Nor does the reparations foyer have something to say in regards to the 50,000 or so New York lives misplaced within the battle to abolish slavery.
Above all: The state’s broke, going through a $32 billion money shortfall by way of 2030; it has no money to fork over for reparations funds of any variety, not to mention the massive sums some certainly think about.
Consider: Preliminary estimates of California’s reparations plan topped $800 billion; that’s why uber-progressive Gov. Gavin Newsom dropped it like a scorching potato, dashing hopes and fueling anger.
And why not one of the candidates to substitute him has picked it up.
Want to help minorities? Fix the public faculties so many should attend; crack down on crime, which hurts them disproportionately.
Make more jobs obtainable by reducing taxes to enhance the economic system.
In the meantime, stop inflating hopes of free money for blacks and dividing New Yorkers alongside racial traces.
This charade received’t finish effectively — and the earlier lawmakers admit it, the much less injury they’ll trigger.
