(VitalNews.org) – The hard-left California working group that has urged the state to pay black residents more than a million dollars each in “reparations” now wants state control over local and municipal ordinances.
The California Reparations Task Force (CTRF), appointed by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, was charged with coming up with a formula to “pay back” black residents allegedly affected by historical racism. Their recently approved final recommendations include giving a state panel the power to override local real estate ordinances if monitors believe those rules “increase segregation.”
The group’s final report claims “residential zoning ordinances have been used for decades in California” to stop black people from moving into certain neighborhoods. “African Americans were shut out,” it claims.
The CTRF appears to believe that historical practices such as “redlining” – marking certain neighborhoods as risky investments for mortgage lenders – are still hurting black residents. To remedy this, the group wants the California legislature to require every city and county to submit their real estate ordinances to a new state government office that will approve or dismiss them based on whether they increase or decrease “racial segregation.”
The task force has been in the news recently for its unprecedented recommendation of giving $1.2 million to every black resident. Why? To make up for past racism and slavery, which the CTRF believes is still affecting black Californians. Slavery was never legal in California, which joined the Union as a free state in 1850.
It is not clear how the state would determine which residents were sufficiently black to qualify for reparations money.
Taking over local control of zoning is not all the CTRF wants. The group’s report also wants the state to give money to, or subsidize the downpayments of, black state residents wishing to buy a house. The recommendations also include giving black people more favorable interest rates than the market provides and paying for their homeowner’s insurance.
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