By Dan Neumann
See original post here.
Guaranteed income pilot programs are springing up across the country, including here in Maine, and a campaign to create the building blocks for a statewide program in Maine is ramping up.
Last week, the advocacy groups Maine Equal Justice (MEJ) and Mayors and Counties for a Guaranteed Income co-hosted a screening of the documentary “It’s Basic,” which follows participants in guaranteed income pilot programs across the U.S., highlighting the life-changing impact a regular income can have for Americans struggling to make ends meet.
Different in scope from universal basic income, or UBI, which offers enough money for a basic subsistence living to every single adult, guaranteed income pilots provide a smaller regular amount to a more targeted group of people, for example, a city’s lowest-income residents.
Allison Edwards, a student and a single parent, is part of a pilot program in Maine, the Project HOME Trust Direct Cash Program run by the Quality Housing Coalition, which is providing 20 single mothers in Maine with $1,000 cash payments each month for a year to boost their financial security.
Speaking after the film screening on a panel, she said the pilot program is helping her to engage as a parent in a way she wouldn’t be able to otherwise.
“With the guaranteed basic income, I can take care of our household and [my daughter and I] still have time together. My daughter is interested in gymnastics. I get to help her do wheelbarrows across the house! It’s just a wonderful feeling in my heart, that I get to be a present parent because my headspace is not overtaken by making ends meet.”
Peace Mutesi, coordinator of Project HOME Trust, spoke about the impacts the program has had on participants just six months into their pilot.
“Through working with these incredible women, we have learned that their priorities vary each month, and they understand their needs best,” she said. “And we have learned to trust that they are the experts in their life and all they needed was a life belt to keep them afloat while they dream big and come up with solutions to the challenges in our community.”
Cities and states around the country are exploring similar guaranteed income pilots. In 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom included $35 million in the state budget to help pay for local governments to launch their own guaranteed income pilots targeting low-income families.
Advocates in Maine would like to do something similar here and are supporting policies that could incrementally move the state in that direction by creating a baseline of financial support. Those include maintaining and even boosting Maine’s Child Tax Credit and making improvements to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, a federal assistance program that is administered by the state.
LD 1877, a bill sponsored by Rep. Michele Meyer (D-Eliot), would improve TANF to ensure more parents and their kids can meet their everyday needs, and allow more Mainers to access the program in the first place. The bill was introduced earlier this year and will be taken up for consideration by lawmakers again next session.
“MEJ and our allies are advancing policy changes we see as building blocks toward a guaranteed income,” Robyn Merrill, MEJ executive director shared during the panel discussion after the film. “In 2023, Maine’s Child Tax Credit became fully refundable and we are advocating for the enhanced CTC at the federal level. Simultaneously, we’re advancing improvements to TANF and urging support for LD 1877 this legislative session as a matter of fairness and a smart investment in our future.”
The film screening was part of the Guaranteed Income Works national tour.
