Maryland Legislature Passes Reparations Bill

Maryland is on the verge of joining a sad fraternity of U.S. states that includes the likes of California, Illinois, and New York.

(No, this isn’t about crime, though those blue states do also that in common.)

The Old Line State is now the fourth to pass legislation to create a state reparations commission.

The point of the commission, per The Hill, is “to study and recommend future reparations for slavery and racial discrimination.”

Those benefits would be targeted toward “individuals whose ancestors were enslaved” or who “were impacted by certain inequitable government policies.”

The outlet described the bill as “a top priority of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland” when it passed the Maryland House on Wednesday.

According to Maryland Matters, the bill to address “historical inequality” passed after a Republican amendment to the bill was rejected along party lines, 101-36 (more on this later).

The bill now just needs to be signed by Maryland Gov. Wes Moore — a black Democrat.

However, it’s apparently not quite a slam dunk guarantee that Moore will sign the bill, as The Hill reported he has concerns on how it would impact the state budget.

While that’s certainly commendable, leave it to a Democrat to have a good idea for the wrong reasons.

No, Mr. Moore, you shouldn’t sign that bill — even if it somehow helped your state’s bottom line.

And the reason for that is simple: Taking money from one group to hand over to another in some vain display of “justice” is not moral.

How would it be fair for, say, a Chinese immigrant in Maryland to pay reparations for the transgressions of a slave owner that the immigrant’s family has literally no association with?

Or, for that matter, why aren’t we discussing reparations for Chinese-Americans whose ancestors built the country’s earliest railroads?

See how stupidly slippery this slope can get?

It’s utter insanity to suggest that taxpayers and their hard-earned cash should be separated over this performative nonsense.

You know what’s even more insane? That aforementioned Republican amendment would’ve expanded this nonsensical bill to at least include provisions where the commission also has to “study the impact of government policies on those who endured child sexual abuse and those as minors” while in state custody, according to a summary from Maryland Matters.

Yeah, Democrats felt that was a bridge too far.

Hopefully someone in Moore’s inner circle is pushing this to him, but even if nobody is, the cold hard numbers really do make this a radically irresponsible decision from the Dems.

As The Hill pointed out, Maryland is facing a $3.3 billion deficit, and this proposal stands to add $54,500 to that deficit in 2026 alone, before any reparations are even implemented.

One of the big things that Americans voted for when President Donald Trump won the November general election was taking a chainsaw to American government bloat.

(It’s the whole reason the Department of Government Efficiency exists.)

And it’s hard to think about anything more wasteful or unnecessary than a “reparations commission,” a project that will probably lead to much worse spending once the recommendations are made public.

Gov. Moore would do well to think about that before signing anything.

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