Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌

Taxes on Wealthy Could Fund Reparations, Lawyers Tell Task Force

Two tax planning lawyers shared their perspectives on one of the ways to pay for the racial injustices suffered by Black Californians with the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans. At the task force’s last two-day meeting held in San Diego on Jan. 27-28, the estate and tax planning attorneys Raymond “Ray” Odom and Sarah Moore-Johnson proposed several options to the nine-member task force for funding reparations through the federal tax code system — including an estate tax as a means to increase racial equity.

Published

2 years ago

March 2, 2023

Oakland Post

Tax attorneys Raymond Brown and Sarah Moore-Johnson (center, talking to a reporter) testified at the last Reparations Task Force Meeting in San Diego on Jan. 28, 2023. The attorneys said reparations could be funded through a state estate tax. Photo by Antonio Ray Harvey.

By Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌
California‌ ‌Black‌ ‌Media‌

At the task force’s last two-day meeting held in San Diego on Jan. 27-28, the estate and tax planning attorneys Raymond “Ray” Odom and Sarah Moore-Johnson proposed several options to the nine-member task force for funding reparations through the federal tax code system — including an estate tax as a means to increase racial equity.

The tax discussion, held about a month ago, was a lead-in to the task force’s next meeting in Sacramento focused on compensation and titled “Redressing the Harms Delineated in Report 1.”

That meeting will be held over two days, Friday, March 3 and Saturday, March 4 at the Byron Sher Auditorium at the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) headquarters, beginning at 9 a.m. both days.

Georgetown Law School tax law professor Dorothy A. Brown offers insight on how the tax code could benefit Black Americans. Photo courtesy of California Black Media.

Moore-Johnson kicked off her presentation at the San Diego meeting during a panel titled “The Forgotten 40 Acres: Repairing Wealth Disparity Using the Estate Tax and New Charitable Incentives.” She said, “the tax code has incentivized white wealth building for years,” and that she and Odom have now found a way to redistribute wealth through tax exemptions at the state level.

“For years, Ray and I intuitively understood that if we could harness those tax incentives to create a public-private partnership to help fund reparations we could get our wealthy clients to willingly enthusiastically embrace using their own money to pay for reparations,” Moore-Johnson said. “We believe that tax deductions should be allowed for private contributions to racial repair because individual taxpayers would be paying a debt of the federal or state government on the government’s behalf,” Moore-Johnson said.

Potential revenue sources, the attorneys say, could be the state estate tax, mansion tax, graduate property tax, and metaverse tax.

Johnson mentioned that the graduate property tax revenue would not apply to California because of Proposition 13, a law that restricts increases in the state tax code.

Odom and Moor-Johnson’s presentation was a condensed introduction to the wealth disparity resulting from chattel slavery and Jim Crow laws and the connection to wealth transfer and wealth taxation.

Odom, however, emphasized that their idea to use the tax code is intentional but it is not a manipulation of the federal tax system.

“I really think that it is so important to set the narrative — and that narrative isn’t around who’s getting something for nothing, but what we are going to do about this gross wealth disparity,” Odom said. “We need to solve this problem for all Americans, but especially for Black Americans.”

Odom — a Chicago estate and tax planning attorney who works at Northern Trust and conducts racial wealth disparity speaking engagements across the country — is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC). He is one of five Black tax attorneys among ACTEC’s 2,500 fellows.

Established in Los Angeles in 1949, ACTEC is a nonprofit association of lawyers and law professors skilled and experienced in the preparations of wills and trusts; estate planning; and probate procedure and management of trusts and estates of the deceased, minors and helpless.

Odom and Moore Johnson explained that the racial wealth gap started to expand in 1981 when Ronald Reagan was in office and the biggest tax cut in history took place. Odom said reparations would be an opportunity to replace “swollen wealth” with the “stolen wealth” of Black people.

Moore-Johnson, an estate planning lawyer, and a founding partner at Birchstone Moore in Washington, D.C., became president of the city’s Estate Planning Council three weeks after George Floyd was murdered in 2020. She is also an ACTEC fellow.

In March of 2021, during a national ACTEC meeting, Odom and Johnson came up with the idea of funding reparations for slavery through the estate tax. They started their research to better understand the history of slavery, post-slavery, reparations, and the wealth gap. Through their research, the duo learned that the racial wealth gap exists, partly, because of the way the federal tax code is set up.

Task force member Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) stated that the tax attorney’s recommendations provided a “clear road map” to reparations.

“All that said, I think it’s comforting, informative and powerful,” Bradford said after the tax attorneys’ presentation. “As a legislator, the takeaway is, we can afford it. This is a debt that’s owed.”

Dorothy A. Brown addressed the task force by teleconference and shared her views about reparations and the tax code. She is a tax professor at Georgetown Law and the author of the book, “The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans and How We Can Fix It.”

Brown’s literature goes to the core of how the complex federal tax system disadvantages the Black community and how it has helped white households secure more solid financial standing.

“Our tax laws as written have a racially disparate impact. Black Americans are less likely to gain access to their tax breaks than their white peers receive,” Brown said. “Therefore, (Black Americans) are more likely to pay higher taxes than their white peers.”

Brown told the task force that she supports a “wealth tax credit applicable to all taxpayers and households,” which would serve the majority of Black people and be available to all “regardless of race and ethnicity.”

“I want to be clear that I’m not providing tax advice or guidance for providing a possible analysis of any reparations payments,” Brown said. “I leave it to your tax council (economic experts) to make a final determination that you would rely upon moving forward.”

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Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌

Black Leaders, Political Orgs, Sound Alarm About Project 2025

With the general elections just a few days away, Black organizations and leaders, including Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA-43), are sounding the alarm about Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s controversial “policy bible.” The four-pillar initiative includes a detailed blueprint for the next conservative presidential administration – making way for a sweeping overhaul of the executive branch.

Published

2 weeks ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

iStock

By Antonio Ray Harvey, California Black Media

With the general elections just a few days away, Black organizations and leaders, including Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA-43), are sounding the alarm about Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s controversial “policy bible.”

The four-pillar initiative includes a detailed blueprint for the next conservative presidential administration – making way for a sweeping overhaul of the executive branch.

Waters has been outspoken in her opposition of the 900-page policy.

Recently, she shared “The People’s Guide to Project 2025” with the Inglewood Area Ministers Association, an organization of predominantly Black pastors, to inform them about the proposal’s impact, emphasizing that its influence would reach beyond the traditional spheres of presidential power. The 15-term politician from Los Angeles shared her sentiments with the House Financial Services Committee in July.

“Project 2025 promotes radical ideals to materially undermine the Federal Reserve, if not effectively abolish it,” Waters said.

Written by the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 was developed with the input of a broad coalition of conservative organizations and is organized around four pillars: Policy, Personnel, Training, and the 180-Day Playbook. The proposals in the document aim to revamp every aspect of the U.S. government.

Waters is not the only person sounding the alarm about Project 2025’s agenda. Grassroot organizations in California and across the nation are preparing to combat the initiative despite who wins the election between Trump and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.

The National Assembly of American Slavery Descendants (NAASD), members of advocacy groups in California, and other Black political organizations across the nation are drawing up policy documents to counter the conservative Project 2025 initiative.

On Aug. 2, NAASD hosted a nationwide ZOOM conference call to discuss policies that concern Black communities.  Nocola Hemphill, the president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Black Women’s Chamber, and grassroots organizations on the call are promoting what they call, #Reparations2025.

“I just want us to think about bringing all policies (ideas) together when we think about Project 2025,” said Hemphill, who lives in South Carolina. “I am excited about the possibility of us forming our own version of Project 2025 and having it published by the November election.”

NAASD is a nonprofit association of community activists from across the country that formed around May 2019.

Los Angeles resident Khansa “Friday” Jones Muhammad is the president of NAASD.

“The National Assembly of American Slavery Descendants (NAASD) envisions a nation where African American descendants of US slavery can fully exercise their constitutional citizenship rights and have economic agency for generations,” Muhammad told California Black Media (CBM).

While forming an agenda for #Reparation2025, NAASD has created a survey to determine how systemic racism and discrimination in the United States have affected Black American lives and single out options to repair harms through public policy. Participants in the survey would help the organization shape a national blueprint.

“During this election cycle, it is imperative that national Black organizations come together for collective success,” Muhammad shared with CBM. “While the vote for President of the United States is important, we need to also focus on other active projects such as ‘Project 2025,’ Supreme Court rulings around race and more.”

Muhammad added, “NAASD’s Black experience survey allows for individuals, Black organizations, and their allies to forge a pathway to reparations by utilizing community-building and policy.”

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Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌

Gov. Newsom Touts California Economic Success

In a 20-minute interview on Oct. 10, Gov. Gavin Newsom said California’s economy is in great shape due to achievements in certain areas. The Governor was speaking at the 2024 California Economic Summit event hosted by California Forward in Sacramento. It was attended by more than 100 leaders from industry, community, and the private, public, and nonprofit sectors.

Published

1 month ago

October 21, 2024

Oakland Post

Gov. Gavin Newsom. File photo.

By Antonio Ray Harvey

In a 20-minute interview on Oct. 10, Gov. Gavin Newsom said California’s economy is in great shape due to achievements in certain areas.

The Governor was speaking at the 2024 California Economic Summit event hosted by California Forward in Sacramento. It was attended by more than 100 leaders from industry, community, and the private, public, and nonprofit sectors.

“It is an exciting and dynamic time,” said Newsom. “Thirty-two of the top 50 AI companies are all here in California. We dominate in tourism – record breaking tourism last year.”

“It isn’t by accident that California is an economic powerhouse,” Newsom continued. “Whether it be around education, infrastructure, or immigration, we’re following a formula for success.”

In Newsom’s overview of the state’s economy, he didn’t include why two companies decided to leave for the state of Texas. SpaceX and Chevron announced their departures over the summer.

Billionaire Elon Musk is moving the headquarters of his companies X and SpaceX from San Francisco to Texas. After 140 years of doing business in California, Chevron is heading to the southwestern state as well.

Chevron employs 2,000 workers in San Ramon. It operates crude oil fields, technical facilities, two refineries, and services more than 1,800 retail stations in California.

“There will be minimal immediate relocation impacts to other employees currently based in San Ramon. The company expects all corporate functions to migrate to Houston over the next five years. Positions in support of the company’s California operations will remain in San Ramon,” Chevron shared in an Aug. 2 press release.

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Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌

Asm. Mike Gipson: Calif. Ports Need Dedicated Funding From State Budget

Assemblymember Mike A. Gipson (D-Carson), a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) and chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Ports and Goods Movement, said the state must provide seaports permanent funding for them to run optimally and remain competitive. “We have yet to see dedicated, ongoing, consistent money allocated to our ports from our state budget,” said Gipson during a news conference held at the State Capitol.

Published

1 month ago

October 21, 2024

Oakland Post

Assemblymember Mike A. Gipson

By Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌, ‌California‌ ‌Black‌ ‌Media

“We have yet to see dedicated, ongoing, consistent money allocated to our ports from our state budget,” said Gipson during a news conference held at the State Capitol.

In August, Gipson released an interim report that features California ports’ crucial role in the state and national economy.

The 52-page  “Chair’s Interim Report” includes an observation of the most critical issues facing the goods movement sector and lays out a blueprint to keep the state’s 11 ports competitive in a complicated and constantly shifting environment.

Gipson stressed that foremost among priorities is the need for the state to continue investing in docking places for cargo ships.

“We are still happy to make sure these ports are not left behind and not neglected,” Gipson said at the news conference. “We still see today that our ports are fighting to have allocations from our federal partners and federal dollars. This report elevates that we need our fair share,” he added.

Over the past year, the Select Committee on Ports and Goods Movement toured the state’s 11 public ports and hosted numerous hearings on the state of the ports. Gipson was first appointed chair by former Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood). When Assemblymember Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) replaced Rendon as speaker, he asked Gipson to continue as Chair.

“The final tour stop for the Select Committee was the port of San Diego last spring. The tour highlighted the port’s efforts in green and sustainable operations,” Gipson told California Black Media (CBM). The tour gave select committee members a breakdown of all of the possibilities the port has to create for economic vitality and growth.

“It’s important that California policymakers support efficient, modern, and sustainable maritime operations while we reduce emissions to improve environmental and public health in our communities,” stated Frank Urtasun, chairman of the Port of San Diego Board of Port Commissioners.

In May, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) announced a $112 million federal investment in that the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach (San Pedro Ports) will receive more than $112 million through a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers program for critical construction upgrades, operations and maintenance activities.

“The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach move 40 percent of the nation’s container imports, transporting the goods that power our economy,” said Padilla.

The report outlines the importance of ports up and down the state, Gipson said. They all serve a function whether they are located on the coast or inland.

Gipson says he learned that the Port of Oakland uploads and discharges more than 99% of the containerized goods moving through Northern California. Oakland’s cargo capacity was the ninth busiest container port in the country based on the 2023 calendar year.

The inland ports cities of West Sacramento and Stockton have “unique” harbor facilities that relieve congestions and facilitate distribution to inland destinations in the Sacramento and Central Valley regions, Gipson told CBM at the State Capitol.

“Each and every port in California plays a vital role and contributes to our supply chain. Not one port in California is more important than the next,” Gipson said. “Each and every port is essential to moving forward and essential to making sure California is the 5th largest economy in the world.”