State Rep. Larry Womble, D-Forsyth, said yesterday that he will continue to fight for financial reparations for people who were sterilized by the state of North Carolina, even though the proposal has almost no chance of getting passed this year.
A legislative committee voted yesterday in favor of a bill that calls for the state to give $20,000 to each living victim of a state-sponsored eugenics program that lasted from 1929 to 1974.
But the committee's approval is likely a moot point. For North Carolina to begin paying out reparations, the proposal would have to make it into the state budget, which is facing a shortfall of more than $4 billion for the budget year that begins next month.
"We don't have any money," said Rep. Mickey Michaux, D-Durham, explaining why reparations would not happen this year. Michaux is the senior budget chairman in the N.C. House.
Another roadblock for reparations is procedural. None of the budget proposals already submitted by the House, the Senate and the governor contained money for reparations payments. Under the legislature's rules, that means that reparations are not supposed to be considered for the final budget.
State officials have estimated that about 2,800 sterilization victims are still alive. If all of them were compensated $20,000 under Womble's bill, it would cost the state $56 million -- a difficult proposition during a year in which the state is slashing spending and considering eliminating thousands of state jobs.
Womble said he realizes that money is scarce.
"That doesn't mean we should stop and wait for the economy to turn around to do something about this," he said. "These people are dying."
What's slightly more realistic this year is a small allocation of money that would be used to start a foundation, which eventually could become a channel through which the state could issue reparations. Perdue, in her budget proposal, recommended $250,000 in start-up money for such a foundation, and the Senate followed suit in its budget proposal.
The House's budget, however, does not contain any money for a foundation -- an exclusion that Womble said "dismayed" him.
He said that even if reparations are off the table this year, he would be satisfied if the $250,000 in start-up money made it into the final budget for 2009-10. Womble has been speaking out on the issue for seven years, ever since the details of the sterilization program were revealed in a series of newspaper articles.
During the program's operation, a state Eugenics Board permitted the sterilization of more than 7,600 people, often because they were considered mentally ill or mentally disabled.
The state has taken several steps to recognize the victims, and on Monday, the state plans to unveil a historical marker in Raleigh to honor them.
In her election campaign last year, Gov. Bev Perdue, a Democrat, promised to provide financial compensation to sterilization victims.
■ James Romoser can be reached at 919-210-6794 or at jromoser@wsjournal.com.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement