The New York state legislature passed a bill Thursday that would create a commission to consider paying out reparations to black residents to address the impacts of slavery.

The bill now heads to New York governor Kathy Hochul for final approval.

The measure would create a nine-person panel tasked with studying the legacy of slavery and segregation and its economic impacts on black New Yorkers, as well as the role of the state and federal government in supporting slavery.

“The consequences of slavery in New York State is not an echo of the past, but can still be observed in daily life,” the bill says.

The commission’s members, chosen by the governor and leaders of the state senate and assembly, would then possibly recommend “appropriate remedies and reparations,” including monetary compensation for the state’s black residents. The panel would be required to submit a report one year after its first meeting. Any recommendations would be non-binding.

“This is a historic piece of legislation that will confront the insidious history of slavery and the way its legacy continues to affect Black New Yorkers today,” New York assembly speaker Carl Heastie said in a statement.

State assemblywoman Michaelle Solages said the effort “is about beginning the process of healing our communities.”

“There still is generational trauma that people are experiencing,” she said ahead of the floor debate. “This is just one step forward.”

Meanwhile, Republican state assemblyman Andy Goodell voted against the bill and said he is “concerned we’re opening a door that was closed in New York State almost 200 years ago.”

He said during the floor debate that he supports existing efforts to bring equal opportunity to all and would like to “continue on that path rather than focus on reparations.”

The New York proposal comes after California became the first state to form a reparations task force in 2020.

The task force approved a detailed plan last month that would see the state pay up to $1.2 million in reparations to each eligible black resident if approved by state lawmakers.

While the report does not say how much the panel’s recommendations would cost the state, economists estimate the housing and mass incarceration-related payments alone could cost more than $500 billion. This despite the state facing a harsh fiscal reality: Governor Newsom announced in January that the state is facing a $22.5 billion deficit in the 2023-24 fiscal year.

California state senator Steven Bradford, a member of the state’s Reparations Task Force, warns black residents that massive reparations payments are “just not happening.”

Bradford said, “Anything’s possible if the money’s there,” but said the reality is it will be difficult to find support for the large payments when lawmakers haven’t even discussed where the money would come from.

“I don’t want to set folks’ expectations and hopes up that they’re going to be getting, you know, seven-figure checks,” Bradford told the Associated Press. “That’s just not happening.”

Newsom declined to endorse the task force’s recommendations: “This has been an important process, and we should continue to work as a nation to reconcile our original sin of slavery and understand how that history has shaped our country. Dealing with that legacy is about much more than cash payments.”