When it comes to progressive nonsense, two states appear to be engaged in a race to the bottom. Any time California does something crazy, New York has to launch into an effort to match them if not exceed them. (Or vice versa if New York goes first.) Previously, this applied to things like sanctuary status for illegal aliens, high taxes, and transgender ideology. But now, California has wrapped up its initial task force study of looking into paying reparations to Black residents. So obviously, New York is shifting into high gear and launching a similar effort.

New York would create a commission to consider reparations to address the lingering, negative effects of slavery under a bill passed by the state Legislature on Thursday.

“We want to make sure we are looking at slavery and its legacies,” said state Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages before the floor debate. “This is about beginning the process of healing our communities. There still is generational trauma that people are experiencing. This is just one step forward.”

The state Assembly passed the bill about three hours after spirited debate on Thursday. The state Senate passed the measure hours later, and the bill will be sent to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for consideration.

Governor Hochul is pretty much guaranteed to sign the bill. How could she not and still keep her progressive bona fides intact? And at this point, there isn’t all that much risk for her. After all, this bill is only intended to set up “a commission that would examine the extent to which the federal and state government supported the institution of slavery.” That still leaves the state a long way from promising to write massive checks.

Speaking of which, much like California, New York’s budget is currently in terrible shape. The California task force did not wind up suggesting specific reparation payments after Governor Gavin Newsom threw cold water all over the idea. Would Kathy Hochul demonstrate the same amount of sanity?

As to studying the state government’s “support of the institution of slavery,” New York was never officially a slave state, though there were some enslaved Africans here in the 1600s and 1700s. The state passed a law freeing all enslaved people in 1817, long before the Civil War. And, of course, they fought on the Union side.

The history of slavery in New York is complicated, as are most things from that era. Slavery certainly took place in the earliest years, as it did pretty much everywhere Europeans went. (And as it did across most of the globe in various forms for nearly all of recorded history, if we’re being honest.) But nobody has legally owned a slave in New York State for almost two centuries. It was one of the earliest states to outlaw the practice. Not only are all of the slaves and the owners dead, but their great, great, great, great descendants are as well.

So if the New York legislature wants to have the same conversation that California’s lawmakers did, they will be dealing with the same reality. Any potential reparation checks that are decided on will be paid to people who have never been slaves and paid for by people who have never owned slaves in a state that was among the earliest to free slaves, even before it was mandated by the federal government. If you want to talk about the generational social and financial impacts of racism up through the early second half of the 20th century, that’s certainly a conversation we can have. But nobody today owes anyone anything based on the practices of people who lived more than two centuries ago.