By Sarah Grunau
Harris County commissioners are weighing options to revive a guaranteed basic income program months after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton struck down the county’s effort to provide monthly stipends to lower-income families.
Deemed Uplift Harris 2.0, commissioners are set to take up a vote this week on the move that would re-enroll participants with a direct debit card and put limitations on spending categories. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said the revised program should eliminate any potential legal challenges made against the effort.
“Of course, that’s not the spirit of a guaranteed income program but it will be helpful and that would help us be able to provide those dollars that those almost 2,000 low-income families were already counting on and had budgeted for,” Hidalgo said during a commissioners court meeting last week.
Paxton requested the state prohibit payments under the county’s pilot guaranteed income program. The Texas Supreme Court in June granted the state’s request, ultimately deeming Uplift Harris unconstitutional.
County officials fought back on Paxton’s ruling earlier this year, pointing at similar income programs in Austin and San Antonio, which have alternatively gone unchallenged by state officials.
“We do know however that there’s nothing stopping the state from suing us again even under this program,” Hidalgo said last week. “We believe that this should really quash any potential argument that it does not stand up to the law.”
The program was originally set to be funded by $20.5 million from the American Rescue Plan Act. It was first designed to provide $500 monthly to 1,928 families, chosen by the lottery method, among the thousands of applicants living below 200% of the federal poverty line in certain zip codes.
The application portal for the program closed in February with more than 82,000 applicants. Only about 2% of the low-income families who applied for the basic income program would’ve actually been selected to participate.
Commissioners Aug. 6 weighed two choices provided by the ARPA Steering Committee to improvise the program, with most favoring the direct debit card option.
After a brief discussion about the options, commissioners sent the item to the steering committee for a vote, according to county documents. The committee on Aug. 7 approved the direct debit card option and commissioners will need to take up their own vote this week, Houston Landing reported.
“This option will allow us to get the funds to them possibly if the state allows it if the courts allow it as quickly as possible,” Hidalgo said. “Unfortunately, that ‘as quickly as possible’ is a four-month time period that it takes to stand up this Uplift Harris 2.0.”
The other option would have expanded the program to allow all Harris County residents under the 200% poverty line to participate.
Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey said he has no plan to support a revised basic income program.
“I will not be supporting the motion and I think from what I can read about these kinds of programs they really show that unconditional cash payments, while of course being beneficial in the moment, have few positive long-term benefits according to one or two studies out there so I will not be supporting the motion,” he said.
