Inspired by Stockton, Basic Income Programs May Be Coming to More Cities

The idea of guaranteed income programs has been around for decades, but it got a lot of attention in the U.S. as the centerpiece of Andrew Yang’s failed bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Critics scoffed at Yang’s plan to give every American $1,000 a month, which would have cost $2.8 trillion a year. Pilot programs launching in some cities across the country are covering just a few hundred people at most. The goal, Tubbs said, is to convince the federal government to launch a guaranteed income program by providing “the stories and the cover to do what is right.”

“It has to be a federal solution,” he said Wednesday. “We understand that a guaranteed income is not a panacea for everything (but) is a powerful tool that provides a floor for everyone.”

But mayors have work to do to win over critics, including Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, a fiscally conservative advocacy group.

“Socialism is great until you run out of other people’s money,” he said, loosely quoting former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. “The concept of universal minimum income is foolish. It disincentivizes work and that is socially destructive.”

Stockton’s program began in early 2019, giving $500 a month to 125 randomly selected residents. It was supposed to end in August, but Tubbs extended it through January because of the pandemic.

During the pandemic, close to half of Stockton residents used most of the money from the program on groceries, according to Tubbs.

“So we found that during the COVID time, food spending went up, from about a third of all purchases to up to 50%,” he told KQED in May. “Spending declined on things like appliances and clothing, etc. Folks are really hunkering down and making sure they have the basics to shelter in place.”

Stockton’s program is funded entirely by private donations. But some of the other programs outlined by a host of mayors at a news conference Wednesday would rely on a mix of public and private money. In St. Paul, Minnesota, Mayor Melvin Carter plans to use money from the federal CARES Act to fund the first phase of that city’s program, which will provide $500 a month to as many as 150 low-income families with young children.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who recently pledged to support a basic income program, said doing this is “probably the most powerful policy antidote for racial disparities” that she could enact, NBC News reported in August. The program in Oakland is still in its developmental phase.

“It all comes down to resources at the end of the day,” she said, noting that she has already reached out to philanthropists for funding.

In Los Angeles, the country’s second-largest city, Mayor Eric Garcetti has pledged to launch a program that includes a mix of public and private money. He hinted the program could also help immigrants living in the country illegally “who have been written out of federal legislation.”