Reparations Task Force to Recommend “Genealogy Branch” to Prove Eligibility

By Antonio Ray Harvey California Black Media

Th e California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans is recommending that the State Legislature fund a governmental department dedicated to assisting reparations applicants prove their ancestry to enslaved people in the United States.

The task force’s proposal to establish a “genealogy branch” within the proposed California American Freedmen Affairs Agency (CAFAA) will be included in the task force’s final report, which is scheduled to be submitted to the Legislature by the end of June 2023. The branch would provide access to expert genealogical research to confirm reparations eligibility for an estimated 2.5 million Black Americans in California who are likely to seek restitution.

The task force will recommend that the CAFAA be headquartered in Sacramento and have satellite offices all around the state. California is in line to become the first state in the United States to provide Black Americans reparations, or restitution for slavery and other state-sanctioned discrimination or exclusion.

As the determining factor for compensation, the task force narrowly decided in March 2022 that lineage, not race, will determine who will be eligible for reparations to align with Proposition 209, a state law prohibiting the consideration of race in public policy decisions or determinations.

During that March 2022 meeting, the task force listened to the per spectives of 11 genealogy experts

State Taxes

ment will receive $3.3 billion in revenue from the holic Beverage Tax Program, Tax on Insurers Program and Private Railroad Car Tax.

The Alcoholic Beverage Tax Program gar nered $429 mil lion. The program is a pergallon excise tax collected on the sale, distribution, or importation of alcoholic beverages to the state. The monies from this tax are placed into the Alcohol Beverage Control Fund and are withdrawn to be used by the state’s general funds or to pay refunds under the program.

The Tax on Insurers Program, administered by the board, State Controller’s Office, and California Department of Insurance, generated $2.9 billion for the state. Insurance com-

By McKenzie Jackson California Black Media

Schools across the Golden State received a windfall of $44.6 billion in local property tax revenue, according to the 2021-22 California Board of Equalization’s (BOE) Annual Report released late last month.

The funds collected from property owners for the 2021-22 fiscal year, which ended last June, was an increase of 3.8% from the previous fiscal year. Overall, local property tax revenues increased 4% or $3.2 billion to $83.1 billion total. In addition to schools, the funds were funneled to the coffers of local governments throughout California.

who offered insights on qualification for reparations before voting 5-4 in favor of eligibility.

In August 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 189, legislation that would facilitate processing lineage-based reparations claims using state data. SB 189 authorizes the State Controller’s Office and the Department of Human Resources to disaggregate Black employee demographic data in an effort to identify who has immigrant origins and who descends from enslaved people in the United States.

The task force will hold its next meeting May 6 in Oakland at Lisser Hall, which is located at 500 MacArthur Boulevard, Mills College at Northeastern University. It will

BOE Chairman Antonio Vazquez said in an April 18 statement that property taxes are a steady and reliable revenue stream for government services and schools that Californians depend on daily.

“The BOE’s critical role protects these dollars through its oversight of property tax assessments and that they are done fairly, uniformly, and consistently,” he said.

The board released a 26-page report weeks after California Democratic lawmakers proposed Assembly Constitutional Amendment (ACA) 11 to abolish the board and reassign its duties to other state tax agencies effective Jan. 1, 2026.

The is responsible for overseeing property tax collection in all 58 California counties. It also makes more than 13 million tax assessments every year.

The report, released yearly to provide information on revenue collected by the fivemember tax body and detail its accomplish - ments, made no mention of the amendment.

In addition to Vazquez, who represents the BOE’s Third District, other members are: State Controller Malia M. Cohen; Ted Gaines (First District); Sally J. Lieber (Second District); and Mike Schaefer, Vice Chair (Fourth District). Yvette M. Stowers, who was appointed by the Board, serves as Executive Director.

Cohen, the first African American woman to chair the BOE, was voted State Controller last November. She took office in January this year.

This year’s report found that the total net statewide county-assessed property value increased by 7% to $7.6 trillion in fiscal year 2021-22, up $500 billion from the previous year. The assessed property value has increased annually for the past 10 years from $4.6 trillion in 2013. For example, it was $5.8 trillion in 2017, $6.9 trillion in 2020, and $7.2 trillion in 2021.

Schools receive a lion’s share of property tax revenues. The 2020-21 fiscal year, $38.5 billion went to counties ($11.7 billion), cities ($10.4 billion), and special districts ($16.3 billion).

Local governments also received $2.2 billion from state-assessed property tax revenues. Last May, the board set the values of 339 state-assessed properties — mainly public utilities and railroads — at $133.9 billion, an increase of $10.8 billion from the previous year. This property tax revenue together with the county-assessed property tax monies will give local municipalities $85.3 billion in property tax funds.

The report also informs Californians of the Taxpayers Rights Advocate (TRA) Office, which is independent of the BOE.

The TRA Office receives contacts from taxpayers and others who are either seeking assistance with a problem or a disagreement they have in the assessment and collection of property taxes or a concern with a program administered by our agency,” the report reads. “Generally, the TRA Office assists taxpayers who have been unable to resolve a matter through normal channels and seek confirmation that they were treated fairly under the law.”

The BOE report found that the state govern - panies con ducting business in California are subject to as many as three taxes — a tax on gross premiums, a retaliatory tax, and the ocean marine tax.

The Private Railroad Car Tax, an in-lieu property tax on railroad cars owned by nonrailroad companies and operated upon California railroads, generated $9.8 million in funds.