New York City’s Commission on Racial Equity is shelling out $500,000 to “community groups” to “participate in a Reparations, Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation Network” that will help produce a study on reparations for black New Yorkers as well as a “Citywide Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation Plan,” records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show. The move comes as New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani (D.) lobbies for new taxes to help close a multibillion-dollar budget deficit.
The commission’s latest “progress update”—which was sent to Mamdani on Jan. 15, 2026, and obtained by the Free Beacon through a records request—touts among its “achievements” $500,000 doled out to “community groups in 2026 to participate in a Reparations, Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation Network.” From that pot, 13 organizations will receive up to $20,000 to “host community conversations to discuss the development of a Reparations study” and “gather truth testimony.” Another 13 groups will receive up to $17,500 to “host community conversations yielding input on the early development of the citywide Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation plan” and “collect truth testimony from their community.” The funding is designed in part to ensure that “participants” in those “community conversations” are “given refreshments.”
The spending reflects the extent to which pricey left-wing cultural priorities have become permanent fixtures in New York City government as Mamdani’s administration struggles to balance the budget.
Mamdani is supposed to release a final budget proposal by Friday, May 1, but postponed the announcement until May 12 as he attempts to close a $5.5 billion gap. Though New York City residents already face the highest combined income tax rate in the country, Mamdani has called for tax increases on those earning $1 million or more as well as on financial firms in an attempt to raise revenue. He has also called for additional aid from the State of New York, which is already set to provide $4 billion to the city, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul (D.). Together, Mamdani and Hochul have also proposed a tax on second homes in New York City valued over $5 million, which the mayor announced in a menacing video in which he pointed up to Citadel CEO Ken Griffin’s Manhattan apartment.
Mamdani has not, however, made any effort to reduce expenses at the organs that make the left-wing bureaucracy hum. In his preliminary budget proposal, released in February, he allocated $4.6 million annually to the Commission on Racial Equity and another $5.6 million to a separate Office of Racial Equity. The combined total of $10.2 million is a $3 million increase from the $7.2 million the commission and office received last year.
Mamdani’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The Commission on Racial Equity’s “Reparations, Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation” work will play out over the course of Mamdani’s mayoral term. The commission is set to release its “Final report for Reparations Study” in July 2027 and its “Implementation for Truth, Healing and Reconciliation Plan” in June 2028, according to its website, meaning the two initiatives will take years to complete.
Both the reparations study and the “Truth, Healing and Reconciliation Plan” are required under New York City laws passed in 2024. Local Law 92 directs the Commission on Racial Equity to “conduct a study of the role of the governing bodies and agencies of the city of New York in perpetrating or perpetuating historical and ongoing impacts of slavery and its legacies and recommend reparative measures for affected individuals or communities in New York City,” including “financial or in-kind restitution,” “compensation for moral or economically assessable damage,” and “public apologies.” Local Law 91 states that New York City “was the site of the wrongful but legally sanctioned enslavement of human beings of African and indigenous American descent” and calls to “create a truth, healing, and reconciliation process,” language borrowed from post-apartheid South Africa.
The purpose of that process is not entirely clear. Unlike the reparations study, the law does not mention financial restitution as part of the “truth, healing, and reconciliation process.” Instead, it defines the process as one “through which New Yorkers can publicly name and acknowledge the past, present, and ongoing harms and traumas caused by and associated with slavery and its legacies in the city of New York” and ensures “that such harms and injustices are not forgotten, perpetuated, or repeated.”
The “progress report” sent to Mamdani uses similar language, noting that the final “plan” will create “a New York that is engaging in healing from the traumas of the past … and is on the path of a racially equitable and just city for all.” It also outlines six “key considerations when designing Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation process.” They include
• “Consideration 1: Meeting people where they are. Truth, and healing, is a constant process, and should occur in all places. Healing should not occur exclusively in government buildings—behind closed doors with little to no inclusion or transparency.”
• “Consideration 2: Resourcing spaces for healing beyond this moment. Who enters a healing space is equal in importance what resources are included in the design of the healing space to support emotional and psychological wellbeing. Community members must represent a diversity of racial and ethnic backgrounds, including white allies. Truth telling is heavy, emotionally taxing, and at times retraumatizing for communities harmed by racism and social injustice.”
• “Consideration 3: Vision-centered approach to healing—Centering Wholeness, not deficit. Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation community conversations and curriculum must utilize a ‘non-deficit’ approach that emphasizes shared humanity to prevent ‘othering’ and keep people involved in this process.”
• “Consideration 4: Our art & culture carries our truth. Cultural creations, such as art exhibits and performances, are critical to ensuring the success of Reparations, Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation work. Community members should work with NYC CORE to showcase visual art and performance art pieces that address a vision of what’s possible and express the truth gathered in community testimony.”
• “Consideration 5: Stories are evidence. The Black community has historically been required to meet a higher burden of proof when telling the truth regarding internal, interpersonal, institutional, and structural racism perpetrated and perpetuated by government. … We were advised to frame this work and our ask as ‘tell me your story‘ as opposed to ‘give evidence.'”
• “Consideration 6: Accessible design and public engagement. … Community members who join in Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation gatherings may experience this work as a ceremony rather than a public meeting. If done with authenticity and intentionality, this work will provide a renewed sense of pride in cultural and racial identity and spiritual practices.”
The commission does not appear to have selected the “community groups” that will work on the projects. The commission’s progress report says in a “What’s Next” section that it will choose a “research team … within the next few months” and begin designing “Reparations, Truth, Healing and Reconciliation campaigns … to encourage understanding, awareness, and long-lasting engagement with this project.”