Minnesota Democrats Reintroduce $100 Million Reparations Bill

DFL legislators introduced a bill this week that would create an advisory council that would distribute up to $100 million in “reparation grants” to Minnesotans who are descendants of slaves.

SF2368 is sponsored by Sens. Sandy Pappas, of St. Paul, Erin Maye Quade, of Apple Valley, Susan Pha, of Brooklyn Park, Liz Boldon, of Rochester, and Omar Fateh, of Minneapolis. Rep. Cedrick Frazier, DFL-New Hope, is the chief author of a companion bill in the House.

The proposal is titled, “Minnesota Migration Act.”

Language in the bill calls for the creation of a Minnesota Migration Act Advisory Council “to analyze the past economic benefits of slavery and institutional racism that accrued to owners and businesses that received those benefits and to identify and document the money received from the dehumanizing activity of slavery by identifying the public and private institutions that benefited from anti-Black practices.”

Such a council would be tasked with developing criteria “to determine how to distribute funding to compensate persons and address systems harmed by these anti-Black practices and to distribute grants to achieve those compensation goals.”

The legislation directs $100 million from the state’s general fund to establish a reparations grant program. The program and advisory council would be overseen by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. It also makes a number of declarations, acknowledgements and apologies on behalf of the state of Minnesota “for the past occurrence of chattel slavery and notable slave owners” who resided in the state. It would also require the state to issue an apology to the family of George Floyd.

Introduction of the bill comes just days after Gov. Tim Walz held a press conference detailing an annual February budget forecast that includes a looming $6 billion deficit. It also comes just weeks after Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bill with similar aims and goals.

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