New York just delayed its own reparations report for the third time, burying the deadline inside a budget bill.
Devine Prince, whose group represents the actual descendants of enslaved Americans, just called the commission a stall tactic built to run out the clock.
Kathy Hochul's own commission may have just admitted this reparations promise was designed to fail.
The Deadline That Keeps Moving
Hochul signed New York's reparations commission into law in late 2023.
The original deal was simple: study the issue, deliver a report by 2025.
Then it became 2027.
Now it's 2029.
That's four years of hearings and taxpayer-funded forums – and not a single check written.
The commission wrapped its public hearings with a forum in Harlem focused on the racial wealth gap.
Inspiring.
The delay itself was buried quietly inside the state budget – not debated, not voted on separately, just slipped in where nobody would notice.
Democrat Assemblymember Michaelle Solages, who sponsored the original legislation, blamed the extension on a legal climate turning against race-conscious policy.
Translation: the courts are dismantling race-based programs, and Hochul doesn't want to own the political fallout of a commission that hands a judge something to strike down.
New lawmakers tucked in a clause that protects commission members from being sued personally over whatever they eventually recommend.
They're bracing for the failure they already see coming.
Newsom Already Showed New York How This Ends
New York Democrats didn't have to guess how this story ends.
California ran this exact play first.
Newsom signed his reparations task force into law in 2020, right after George Floyd's death – maximum political energy, maximum political promise.
The task force spent two years producing a 1,100-page report recommending payouts of up to $1.2 million per eligible descendant.
Newsom praised the work.
Then he vetoed the bills that would have actually paid anyone.
He signed a new bureau instead, with his office touting it for "ensuring equitable access for a historically marginalized community."
Most Americans don't support reparations to begin with.
Democrat governors in blue states know they can't write those checks without paying a political price at the ballot box.
So they build commissions.
The commissions produce reports.
The reports get shelved or delayed.
New York just ran the identical script, delayed twice and now four years behind its original schedule.
The Justice Department Is Already Circling
This isn't only a political problem for Democrats.
It's a legal one.
The Trump Justice Department has already joined a lawsuit against Evanston, Illinois, arguing its reparations housing program hands out government money based on race alone.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the program "cannot withstand the strict scrutiny required" for racial classifications.
Devine Prince has been making a similar argument about New York for years.
"These are individuals put in place to keep the status quo intact," Prince told Fox News Digital.
Prince didn't blame Republicans for the delay.
He blamed the commission itself.
He's right.
Prince's organization wants reparations limited to documented descendants of Americans actually enslaved on U.S. soil, not the broad racial categories that just got Evanston sued.
Hochul's commission was built around race instead of lineage anyway.
The same legal exposure sinking Evanston's program is now sitting inside Albany's.
If New York's commission ever produces a race-based payout plan, it will walk straight into the same courtroom fight Evanston is losing right now.
New York Democrats are spending taxpayer money to stall a promise their own legal framework can't survive, and the descendants who were supposed to benefit saw it coming before anyone else did.
Sources:
- Joshua Q. Nelson, "Reparations activist does not expect compensation from New York officials as action is delayed for years," Fox News, September 28, 2026.
- Fox News Staff, "Trump admin vows to stop reparations programs, accuses officials of 'virtue signaling' to get 'votes,'" Fox News, 2026.
- Washington Times Staff, "California reparations push falters again as Newsom vetoes housing, education benefits," Washington Times, October 16, 2025.
