"That's $20 million that you can go into an underserved neighborhood and change it for the next 50 years"- Tom Ramsey, Commissioner (R-Pct.3)
Basic income programs have taken hold over the last few years with states attempting to experiment with providing a monthly stipend to households within the lowest income brackets.
However, one major U.S. city ran into a snag temporarily before being re-approved by a local judge on the cusp of the program's initial start date.
Harris County, which encompasses Houston, the fourth largest city in the contiguous states, has a population of approximately 2.3 million residents and growing according to the United States Census Bureau.
Announced in the summer of 2023, the program called Uplift Harris aims to add a cushion to the budgets of struggling families in ten of the most income-vulnerable zip codes. Stemming from congressional relief funds it will provide approximately $965,000 per month to a total of 1,928 families over the course of the next year and a half.
Opponents of the bill criticized the measure citing it as unconstitutional due to not being tied to a specific set of circumstances within the state of Texas. However, efforts to block the initiative by Attorney General Ken Paxton were eventually thwarted last week in a loss over it's funding.
Local leaders celebrated the news briefly as thousands of approved recipients look forward to spending the stipends on everything from household bills to splurges. As an amended start date is yet to be announced, the case is currently expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court.