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Gov. Wes Moore (D) and his staff met regularly with lawmakers to discuss a bill creating a reparations study commission, and expressed concerns about the bill that the governor subsequently vetoed, his office insisted Monday.
And lawmakers’ claims that the administration was pursuing its own reparations plan that borrowed heavily from the later-vetoed bill are “inaccurate,” a top aide to the governor said Monday.
The pushback came one day after a Baltimore Banner story quoted lawmakers who said their requests for input from the governor on the reparations bill were rebuffed, as he ultimately pursued his own proposal that had “almost the exact language” from the lawmakers’ bill.
It also brought renewed pledges from lawmakers to override the governor’s veto of the bill as soon as the General Assembly meets again.
“We remain committed to working to ensure this critical step toward reparative justice is realized and implemented with the care, urgency, and depth it deserves by overriding the veto,” said a statement Monday from the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland.
The bill was a priority of the caucus, which said it had worked on the measure for more than a year. The bill would have created a commission to study the effects of historic racism on Black residents, and make recommendations for “appropriate benefits” for individuals whose ancestors were enslaved in Maryland or were impacted by “certain inequitable government policies.”
The 23-member commission would have included various elected officials, researchers with an expertise in slavery, a member of the NAACP, historians, business leaders and members of the general public, among others. It was to consider potential benefits ranging from monetary awards to a public apology to debt forgiveness.
It passed both chambers of the legislature by overwhelming majorities on April 2.
In a decision that surprised many lawmakers, Moore vetoed the bill on May 16. Moore, currently the nation’s only Black governor, said in his veto message that it was a “difficult decision” but that “now is not the time for another study. Now is the time for continued action that delivers results for the people we serve .”
But lawmakers and advocates involved in the reparations debate said the Moore administration was pursuing its own plan all along that would have done much the same as the bill, only under the governor’s name.
Del. Aletheia McCaskill (D-Baltimore County), a lead sponsor of the House version of the bill, told the Banner that in a meeting with the governor shortly before the bill passed, he presented her with a draft plan which contained “almost the exact language from her bill.” She told the Banner that the packet she saw also included a proposed plan for the order’s media rollout that included a list of TV stations and media outlets, as well as a prepared script.
McCaskill did not respond to requests for comment Monday. But in a prepared statement, Moore’s chief of staff said “her recollection of the event are inaccurate” and the suggestion that documents were shared showing a press plan “are lies.”
“The governor vetoed this legislation, and the staff’s draft alternative differed from her proposal,” said Fagan Harris, Moore’s chief of staff. “No documents showing a press plan were shared, those are lies, and the governor highlighted his continued concerns about her legislation.”
An aide to the governor refused Monday to share the administration’s alternative plan, saying the administration would not share what he called draft materials.
Harris also said Moore’s staff met consistently with legislators throughout the session and kept them apprised of where the governor stood on the issue.
“The governor himself met with many of the legislators that pushed this effort, and at numerous occasions the office expressed hesitancy with the proposed legislation – to say anything to the contrary is simply false,” the statement said.
Harris’ statement went on to echo many of the points of Moore’s veto message, saying the governor wants direct action, not legislation that carries “an unknown price tag” for taxpayers. The governor continues to work with legislators, local leaders, and advocates to “close the racial wealth gap and right the historic injustices that have taken place in Maryland all while growing Maryland’s economy and ensuring the long-term fiscal stability of the state,” Harris said.
Del. Jheanelle Wilkins (D-Montgomery), the chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, said in a statement Monday that the caucus deeply values its longstanding partnership with Moore, but that they have a “fundamental disagreement on the path forward” on the issue of reparations.
Wilkins described the reparations commission created in the bill as “not a study of past harms, but a first-ever structured framework to determine how repair should be delivered, resourced, and implemented across generations.”
“Together, we must pursue bold, lasting policies that deliver justice and opportunity for Black Marylanders,” she added.
Carl Snowden, convener of the Anne Arundel Caucus of African American Leaders, said that there’s “no one strategy” to address reparations, but any path taken will require cooperation and communication among the state’s leaders.
The veto may have made that cooperation more difficult in the short term, Snowden said, but he is optimistic about the future. He said that ultimately, it’s not about a single person or single strategy, but rather the end goal.
The state’s leaders must embrace “unity without uniformity” to get there, he said.
