Maryland Governor Vetoes Reparations Bill, Says It’s Not Time for Another Study

The proposed forms of reparations included monetary compensation, property tax rebates, and assistance with home down payments.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore speaks during the Veterans and Military Council meeting at Hyatt Regency McCormick Place during the last day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago on Aug. 22, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has vetoed a bill that would have established a commission to explore reparations for slavery.

In a veto message issued on May 16, Moore noted that the state has already approved at least two commissions to study this matter and said that “it’s not the time for further study.”

Instead, he urged lawmakers to shift their focus toward concrete actions aimed at addressing racial disparities.

“In light of the many important studies that have taken place on this issue over nearly three decades, now is the time to focus on the work itself: Narrowing the racial wealth gap, expanding homeownership, uplifting entrepreneurs of color, and closing the foundational disparities that lead to inequality—from food insecurity to education,” he said.

The decision drew criticism from the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus, which represents 66 of the 188 members of the state Legislature.

“The state’s first black governor chose to block this historic legislation that would have moved the state toward directly repairing the harm of enslavement,” the lawmakers said in a statement.

The bill cleared Maryland’s Democrat-dominated Senate in March and the House in April. It would have established the Maryland Reparations Commission, tasked with studying and making recommendations on “appropriate benefits” for individuals whose ancestors were enslaved in the state or were harmed by what it said to be racially discriminatory government policies.

The proposed forms of reparations included an official apology, direct monetary compensation, property tax rebates, assistance with making a down payment on a home, business incentives, child-care support, debt forgiveness, and college tuition waivers.

Supporters argued that reparations are necessary because the legacies of slavery still affect black Americans today. Opponents countered that reparations are unfair, as slavery ended generations ago and no one alive today perpetrated it or directly suffered from it.

“I think it’s disgraceful that we’re going to set up a reparations tax that might tax one race and give to another race all in the name of equity,” Matthew Morgan, a Republican delegate, said in April before voting against the bill.

Some lawmakers also took issue with the bill’s broad language, which gave the proposed commission wide discretion in defining eligibility. They warned that, in theory, this could extend benefits to millions of people across the United States or even the world, costing billions of dollars.

House Minority Leader Jason Buckel, a Republican, called on his colleagues to face the financial realities and proposed an amendment to limit the commission’s recommendations for relief or remedies to individuals currently residing in Maryland. His amendment did not pass.

“As much as we would like to, we cannot solve—and we cannot absolve—the entire problem of the United States of America,” he said in April ahead of the vote. “We can only help those who are within our borders and boundaries because we are helping them with our tax dollars.”

Maryland abolished slavery in 1864 through a state constitutional amendment, months before the Thirteenth Amendment outlawed the practice throughout the United States in the aftermath of the Civil War. In 2007, the Maryland Legislature issued official statements expressing “regret for the role Maryland played in instituting and maintaining slavery.”