By Sarah Grunau
The modified program would provide nearly 2,000 families living below 200 percent of the federal poverty line, who were already selected for the program, with $500 monthly payments through preloaded debit cards. Payments under the revised program were set to start going out in January.
Harris County cannot distribute money under a revamped guaranteed income program while a final appeal is pending, according to a recent order by the Fifteenth Court of Appeals.
The move comes months after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed a decision by a Harris County judge that denied the state’s attempt to shutter the county’s second version of a guaranteed basic income program. Deemed unconstitutional, the first version of the “no-strings-attached” program was first struck down by a judge in June.
The modified program would provide nearly 2,000 families living below 200 percent of the federal poverty line, who were already selected for the pilot program, with $500 monthly payments through preloaded debit cards. Payments under the revised program were set to begin going out in January.
An order from the court on Dec. 6 granted a request to expedite the appeal process of the guaranteed income program, giving the county and the state just over two weeks to file opinions in the matter. During proceedings in the appeal process, the county cannot distribute funds under the revamped plan deemed the Community Prosperity Program.
“We disagree with the court’s decision to stay the program, pending the appeal,” Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said in a statement Friday to Houston Public Media. “Attorney General Paxton is dead set on blocking Harris County families from having the resources they need to make a better life for themselves.
“Harris County families deserve support, and we’ll keep pushing for solutions that give them a fair shot,” Menefee added.
The $20 million program would be funded through federal COVID-19 recovery dollars. Harris County commissioners approved the plan to relaunch the program for a second time in August, despite the retooled changes not being “the spirit” of the original pilot program, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said.
In August, Hidalgo added that if the new program becomes stuck in court, the money will be reallocated to county programs “to support people living in poverty.”
“I don’t want the families to have sort of false hope,” she said during a commissioners court meeting at the time. “We’re going to wait and see what happens, but we’re doing everything we can.”
Since the first version of the program, called Uplift Harris, was struck down, Paxton has maintained that distributing public dollars for guaranteed income programs violates state law.
“Harris County is not above the law and cannot ignore the Texas Constitution,” Paxton said in a statement Friday. “They made a blatant attempt to end-run a Texas Supreme Court ruling by duplicating their unlawful handout program, and we have successfully blocked them again.”
