Los Angeles County could be the next local government to test a universal basic income program. Supervisors are scheduled to vote Tuesday on a three-year pilot program that would give a little over $1,200 a month to 150 adults between 18 and 24 years old.
First District Supervisor Hilda Solis said this pilot program would serve as a model for how the county can continue to help its "most vulnerable residents."
“As the County transitions out of the COVID-19 pandemic, we will need to support the recovery of our residents coping with the disproportionate financial impact brought on by this past year to help rebuild our communities,” said Solis in a May statement.
“One such tool to assist vulnerable residents and place them on a path to economic mobility, is the development of a GBI [guaranteed basic income] program. With the highest poverty rate in California at 22.3%, the county should explore partnering with the state on this initiative.”
Gov. Newsom’s May Revision Budget included $35 million over five years to pay for Universal Basic Income pilot programs.
Joel Griffith from the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation criticized the program. Griffith, a research fellow, told KNX the money for a larger universal basic income program would have to come from somewhere.
Providing eligible participants with the monthly stipend “means you’re going to have to raise taxes on those that are earning and income or running businesses,” said Griffith.
Though that was not true for a basic income program has already been tried in California.
For two years beginning in Feb. 2019, 125 participants in a Stockton program received a monthly, no-strings-attached check of $500. The program was funded by donors, not taxes.
A study of a two-year guaranteed income project in Stockton found that recipients of the stipend were “healthier, showing less depression and anxiety and enhanced well-being” than those in a control group, according to the LA Times.
Then-Mayor Michael Tubbs said in a statement that the program “gave people the dignity to make their own choices, the ability to live up to their potential and improved economic stability going into the turmoil of the pandemic."
Long Beach has announced its own universal basic income pilot program. LA city is considering one too.