AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Austin City Council members are set to consider giving the green light Thursday to a pilot program that would seek to provide "guaranteed income" for a year.
The program, which is being proposed by the City's Equity Office and grew out of the city's Reimagining Public Safety Task Force, would provide 85 families and individuals with payments of $1,000 each month for one year.
Funding for the pilot program is already included in the budget approved by Council members last summer. The program, according to budget documents from last August, is intended to complement a privately-run pilot program being conducted by the Family Independence Initiative, UpTogether, and other philanthropic partners. That private program, according to city documents, was assisting 115 families for 12 months for a total cost of $1,138,000.
The proposal on Thursday's Council agenda will put the city's program in the hands of the same partners behind the privately-run program.
"It is the expectation that City staff would collaborate with the pilot organizers and develop a repeatable program design that integrates guaranteed income with other public support services, and a participant selection process that emphasizes areas of key priority to the City such as homelessness, displacement, and equity," the budget amendment read.
District 6 council member Mackenzie Kelly, who along with Leslie Pool voted against the amendment during last year's budget deliberations, spoke out against the plan on Monday's Cardle & Woolley.
"It's just another socialist program that we're trying to push as a city to be more progressive," said Kelly. "My concern is that by giving 85 people a thousand dollars a month for a whole year that we're actually going to put them in a worse place than when they started, once this pilot program is over and they're dependent on that money."
So far, city staffers have not revealed any details on how participants might be selected for the pilot program, only to say that more details will be provided when the program goes before Council on Thursday.
Thursday's council meeting is set to begin at 10 a.m., and will be broadcast on ATXN and online at www.atxn.tv.