HOUSTON — A district judge has allowed Harris County to continue with its guaranteed basic income program, while the case moves through the court system.

What You Need To Know

  • The ruling comes a week after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Harris County over its Uplift Harris program — a guaranteed income pilot program that promises $500 a month for 18 months to approximately 2,000 low-income households

  • The first checks were planned to be sent out next week, and the judge ruled Thursday against Paxton’s request for an injunction to stop the county from sending out the checks. Paxton can appeal the ruling to the Texas Supreme Court

  • Paxton argues the program violates the Texas Constitution because it “expressly prohibits giving away public funds to benefit individuals” 

  • The Austin City Council passed a $1.3 million contract on Thursday to build upon its universal basic income pilot program

The ruling came a week after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Harris County over its Uplift Harris program — a guaranteed income pilot program that promises $500 a month for 18 months to approximately 2,000 low-income households. Funding for the program comes from the American Rescue Plan Act, and Harris County plans to invest $20.5 million in Uplift Harris. 

According to the Houston Chronicle, more than 82,500 applications were submitted to be a part of the program.

The first checks were planned to be sent out next week, and the judge ruled Thursday against Paxton’s request for an injunction to stop the county from sending out the checks. Paxton can appeal the ruling to the Texas Supreme Court.

Paxton argues the program violates the Texas Constitution because it “expressly prohibits giving away public funds to benefit individuals.” 

In his lawsuit, Paxton calls the program a “socialist experiment” and “illegal and illegitimate government overreach.”

While this case continues through the court system, another Texas municipality approved a similar program on Thursday. The Austin City Council passed a $1.3 million contract to build upon its universal basic income pilot program.

The contract created the Family Stabilization Grant Program with the goal of providing support to “low-income families amid Austin’s affordability crisis,” according to the agenda. 

“The Family Stabilization Grant Program will continue to provide financial support to families, support opportunities to strengthen families’ social networks, strengthen existing resources in communities, gather insight and data to assist with uplifting the families in communities,” the agenda said. “The program will also inform programmatic investments in alignment with the City’s strategic priorities.”

In 2022, the Austin City Council approved the Guaranteed Income Pilot Program, and with the help of the nonprofit UpTogether, the city provided $1,000 a month to dozens of Central Texas families in need. 

The city allocated $1.18 million to help recipients with utilities, rent, child care and other necessities. The pilot program ended in September 2023.

Austin’s new program will again be implemented by UpTogether. 

According to the City of Austin’s website, the Family Stabilization Grant Program will not have an open enrollment process and will instead rely on partnerships with established community nonprofits to select participants.