A city commission that costs taxpayers $5 million a year solely to study racial inequity has contracted out one of its main jobs -- researching potential slavery reparations.
The Commission on Racial Equity -- which consists of 15 members aided by at least a half-dozen paid staffers -- last week issued a solicitation to find a vendor to create a report for it on "how wealth for the White population, key businesses, and NYC government grew as a result of enslaved African labor."
The report must include information on "the harms perpetrated and perpetuated by NYC government related to chattel slavery and its legacies" and how the city financially benefited from chattel slavery, Jim Crow, and the legacy of slavery, as well as pointing to neighborhoods that "suffered from grave injustice related to slavery and its legacies."
In addition, the commission will need recommendations for "reparative policies" and the "legislative language and funding mechanisms" needed to address slavery in the city 160 years after the Civil War ended, the request said.
It is not clear how much the outsourced work will cost -- or whether the dough will come from the panel's existing budget or be an add-on expenditure -- since the taxpayer-funded agency did not respond to a Post request for the information.
A previous cost estimate put such a report at $1.5 million.
"Let me get this straight: The commission that has already spent millions of dollars to dredge up racial grievances and do nothing at all to help make any New Yorker's life better now wants to spend millions more to pay other people to do their useless work for them?" raged City Council Minority Leader David Carr (R-SI).
"Unreal," he said.
"Every time I think, that's it, we have found the absolutely most absurd way to set fire to taxpayer money, this city says, 'Hold my beer.' "
The commission was tasked with conducting the study under a controversial set of bills passed in 2024.
"CORE in consultation with the office of racial equity, shall 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," according to the law.
Then-Mayor Bill de Blasio led the charge on the group's creation in 2021 as a way to address "past and continuing harms" of black residents.
The panel already dropped around $200,000 on getting "truth testimony from New Yorkers" earlier this year to generate these reports.
The legislation ordering the study in 2024 estimated similar research would run $1.5 million, but at the time, it was billed as being done by the commission.