A Maryland Democrat has proposed increasing taxes to pay for reparations for black Americans. This comes as Democrats across the country have put forward efforts to start issuing reparations.
Sen. Jill Carter, a Democrat from Baltimore City, sponsored the Maryland Reparations Act of 2024. According to Fox News, she is calling for a "certain amount of revenue from the State individual income tax and Maryland estate tax be distributed to the Community Reinvestment and Repair Fund."
The money will come from an "additional State individual income tax rate on the net capital gains of individuals” and will service low-income residents and "disproportionately impacted areas."
"We are just in the beginning stages of our process of legalizing marijuana and we have made some great strides, like when we created the Community Reinvestment and Repair Fund, which is designed to put money back into, to prioritize communities of color that have most been negatively impacted by the war on drugs that unfortunately was a war mainly on poor and black people," Sen. Carter told the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee on February 14th when she introduced the bill, Fox News noted.
Maryland lawmaker wants to raise taxes, alter tax bracket to fund reparations for Black residents https://t.co/ivAqXt3o5z
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 5, 2024
Late last month, California lawmakers brought forward a reparations package to the state house in an effort to “right historic wrongs” made against the African-American community. This would include a formal apology from the governor and state legislature for slavery and directing funds to community programs meant to help the black community, among other things.
As Leah previously reported, when news of the bills first broke, it was noted that none of the bills included in the package included cash reparations. The bills were created based on proposals recommended by the Reparations Task Force.
"What good is a cash payment if it's only going to benefit one generation?" Assemblymember Corey Jackson, a Democrat, told Reuters. "One of the cornerstones of our reparation package is to clear the way of legal barriers, of systemic barriers, to ensure that the work we now do will last another 100 years."
Earlier this year, Townhall covered how Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (D) announced that the city created a reparations task force to study the city’s slave history and its lasting impact.
"For four hundred years, the brutal practice of enslavement and recent policies like redlining, the busing crisis, and exclusion from City contracting have denied Black Americans pathways to build generational wealth, secure stable housing, and live freely," Wu said.
“I’m grateful to these teams of historians who will serve our city by documenting Boston’s role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the myriad legacies of slavery that continue to impact the daily lives of our city’s communities,” Wu added.