Shocker: Reparations funds go unspent while the grafters squabble over the spoils
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Baltimore Reparations Fund Plagued by Infighting and Struggles for Control
“The City Hall says the mayor has final say, while commissioners maintain the body was created to independently manage the funds”
When the state of Maryland legalized marijuana for personal use a few years ago, it designated a percentage of sales to be put in a special fund, which would be used in part to pay reparations for slavery and to fund various social programs.
The fund now contains upwards of $35 million, but almost none of the money has been paid out because of an ongoing power struggle to control it between pretty much everyone involved in the program. Who could have predicted such a thing?
FOX News reports:
…. The Baltimore Beat reported that the $35 million in revenue from the recreational cannabis tax has not reached residents yet due to infighting between City Hall and the Community Reinvestment and Reparations Commission, a 17-member body established in November 2024 to oversee how the funds are distributed.
Since Maryland legalized recreational cannabis three years ago, “not a single dollar has reached the people it was meant to help, and the first round of funding may still be a year away,” the report said.
“The City Hall says the mayor has final say, while commissioners maintain the body was created to independently manage the funds,” the Beat reported.
“That holdup means that while Maryland’s legalization of cannabis in 2023 led to over $1.1 billion in sales over the following year alone, even as Black communities continue to be targeted by the drug war, none of it has helped repair that damage,” the article explained.
More from the Baltimore Beat:
Jumel Howard, chief of external affairs in the Baltimore City Office of Equity and Civil Rights, said in a statement to Baltimore Beat that City Hall is “committed to delivering meaningful investments to impacted communities” and is working with the commission to create a plan and timeline for distribution with public input.
“Funds can only be distributed after a formal plan is released and a public hearing is conducted,” Howard said.
But commissioners allege City Hall has begun allocating millions of dollars from the fund without their approval.
A taste of what’s to come: handouts to allies and friends
In a statement to the Beat on behalf of the commission, Commissioner Khalilah M. Harris (who briefly worked at The Real News Network with several people affiliated with the Beat) said the city has allocated over $5 million that “the Commission did not authorize.”
Howard disputed that characterization and said that the city designated the Office of Equity and Civil Rights to administer the $5 million in support of the commission’s work, including staffing and outreach.
And giving new meaning to “The Free State”, this graft program is about to statewide — why should the Baltimore thieves get all the loot, when there are needy politicians in every county and every town?
In 2025, amid the slow rollout of the cannabis repatriation funds across the state, Maryland lawmakers passed Senate Bill 894 that mandates counties to develop a formal plan for distributing the money, limit administrative costs, and report annually to the state on how the funds are being used.