:focal(0x0:3000x2000)/static.texastribune.org/media/files/413c037abf4deb74925c7e6aa84fdb55/Houston%20Skyline%20CR%20TT%2001.jpg "Texas sues Harris County to block guaranteed income program")
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Harris County on Tuesday to block a new guaranteed income pilot program that would provide financial assistance to families in the county’s poorest neighborhoods.
Under the federally funded program, approximately 1,900 households in Harris County will receive monthly cash payments of $500 for 18 months. The county committed $20.5 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds to launch the program, known as Uplift Harris, which aims to help households in the county’s 10 poorest zip codes that live 200 % below the federal poverty line with no conditions. These families have already been selected and payments were to begin this month.
Conservatives backed out of the program after Harris County commissioners approved it in June and have since tried to stop it. State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston-area Republican who has often sought to undermine the county’s Democratic leadership, asked Paxton earlier this year to declare the law unconstitutional.
Paxton criticized the program in a legal filing Tuesday, calling it an “illegal and illegitimate overreach of government action” and calling it the “Harris Gift.” Paxton argued that the pilot program violates a section of the Texas constitution that states that no local government may “extend credit or provide public money or valuables” to individuals.
“This scheme is patently unconstitutional,” Paxton said in a statement. “Taxpayers’ money should be spent legitimately and used to promote the public interest, not simply redistributed without accountability or a reasonable expectation of common benefit.” I am filing a lawsuit to prevent Harris County officials from misusing public funds for political gain.
Harris County officials dismissed Paxton’s move as the latest effort by the state’s Republican leadership to limit the county’s power.
“This lawsuit is nothing more than another attack on Harris County government by Republican state leaders looking to make headlines,” Harris County District Attorney Christian Menefee said in a statement. “This program aims to help people in a real way by giving them direct cash assistance – something that governments have always done. I cannot for the life of me understand why any public servant would oppose this.
Harris County is the latest locality in Texas to experiment with guaranteed income programs, following efforts in Austin, San Antonio and El Paso. Local governments across the country have turned to similar efforts in recent years to help families in need weather the high costs of housing and food and recover from the economic downturn of the pandemic. Beneficiaries of a pilot guaranteed income program in Austin that ended last year received $1,000 a month and used that money mostly to help them stay housed as the city faced exorbitant increases in housing prices and rents , an Urban Institute study found.
Houstonians broadly support the idea of a guaranteed income, according to a survey by Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research. More than 75% of respondents to a 2023 Kinder poll said they supported a “universal basic income for low-income working adults”.
Disclosure: Rice University is a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in Tribune journalism. Find a full list of them here.
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