A California State Senator - a Democrat, of course - is proposing to raid a special fund for economic uncertainties to establish a fund for "reparations." Because California has plenty of cash to throw around, one would suppose.

California law requires unspent money from the state's General Fund to go to the Special Fund for Economic Uncertainties (SFEU), a reserve that lawmakers have broad discretion to use for public purposes. Democratic state senator Steven Bradford's S.B. 1331 would require the state's controller, its chief fiscal officer, to put 6 percent of the money transferred to the SFEU into a reparations fund the bill would create.

"The bill would require the controller to transfer from the Special Fund for Economic Uncertainties to the Fund for Reparations and Restorative Justice an amount equal to 6 percent of transfers from the General Fund to the Special Fund for Economic Uncertainties, as specified," the text reads.

Reparations for what, one wonders? Slavery was never legal in American California. It wasn't exactly in the Jim Crow part of the country. This begs the question: "Who is getting paid, and for what?" 

It turns out that Senator Bradford can answer that question.

The reparations fund would give money to "policies that indemnify African-American descendants of a chattel enslaved person or descendants of a free black person living in the United States prior to the end of the 19th century."

Bradford's bill came days before a government watchdog warned that California's budget deficit swelled to $73 billion, due to a $24 billion decrease in revenues. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D.) had predicted last month that the deficit would be under $40 billion.

Bradford's office did not return a request for comment.    

I'll damn well bet they didn't return a request for comment; California isn't exactly in the best financial shape just now (and if that's not the understatement of the month, it will do until a better one comes along.) 

See Related: Only Gavin Newsom Could Turn a $97 Billion Record Surplus Into a $73 Billion Deficit in Under Two Years

Forget the National Debt - Most of America's Big Cities Are Broke

There's some unpacking to be done here.

1. This reparations fund will give money to "policies that indemnify African-American descendants of a chattel enslaved person or descendants of a free black person living in the United States prior to the end of the 19th century." How are you defining all that? Is it by skin color? Would a naturalized citizen from Uganda qualify?
2. How would one determine that they had an ancestor that was a "chattel enslaved person?" They didn't exactly keep the best of records in the pre-Civil War South, especially among the enslaved population, and the places where slaves were kept are all a long way from California.
3. Assuming an applicant can establish that they are descended from chattel slaves, how would that work? Would someone with three enslaved ancestors receive a larger chunk of cash than someone who only had one such ancestor?

Chattel slavery was, of course, an awful thing. But there's a relevant fact to be considered: There is nobody alive today who either held anyone as a slave or who was held as a slave. All of those people are dead now, kind of like California's budget surplus. There is not one person alive today who is entitled to a red cent of "reparations" for events that happened to people who lived over 150 years ago.

This seems, frankly, like another scheme for taking money away from people who earned it and giving it to people who did not.