If at first you don’t succeed…
Harris County will relaunch its guaranteed income initiative with added restrictions following Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit challenging the legality of the Uplift Harris program.
Though the Uplift Harris legal battle is still making its way through the courts, the clock is running out to move forward with the $20.5 million program because it’s funded by federal pandemic recovery dollars that must be allocated by the end of the year.
Around 1,900 participants were selected earlier this year to receive $500 monthly payments for 18 months, following a similar guaranteed income model that has been used around the country.
[…]
Paxton’s office has argued the program violates a state law prohibiting the gift of public funds to any individual, does not serve a public purpose and lacks sufficient controls on how the funding can be spent. The county has defended the initiative, arguing that it will alleviate poverty and the participants were selected by a common method of distributing public funds, a lottery system with eligibility requirements.
San Antonio and Austin have previously implemented similar programs without facing legal challenges from the state.
Under the new plan approved Thursday, the households that were already awaiting payment will receive pre-loaded cards that restrict spending to approved categories.
“That’s not the spirit of a guaranteed income program,” Hidalgo said. “That’s why this is Uplift Harris 2.0, not Uplift Harris. But it is a way to keep our promises to these families and we do think it will have a benefit and something that we can study.”
If the state challenges the modified program, the county plans to reallocate the funding to existing programs that support people living in poverty, Hidalgo said.
See here for the previous update. I will note that I thought of the “Uplift Harris 2.0” title before I read through the article and saw Judge Hidalgo’s comment. Great minds think alike, and also that was an obvious possibility. This addresses the lack of controls on how the money is spent – which, as noted, largely defeats the purpose of the program, which was intended in part to see how it performed versus other types of assistance – but whether that’s sufficient to overcome the earlier ruling remains to be seen. Now we wait for further input.
Despite receiving hundreds of millions in ARPA funds and a record amount in annual revenue (due to higher property appraisals), Harris County government is now reportedly broke. Why? EXCESSIVE SPENDING. So, what is the plan to address the County’s financial shortfall? Is there an aggressive plan to cut back and re-prioritize our government spending so we can operate within our record revenue? Nope. The plan is to get even more money from local taxpayers. Harris County will be raising our property tax rates 8% this year, plus will be asking voters in November to approve an increase in the flood district tax rate (raising our local property taxes even more). In addition, HISD is asking voters for over $4 billion in school bonds.
Given the county’s financial shortfall and the squeeze on local taxpayers, is now a good time for another multi-million-dollar government handout ($20 million – Uplift 2.0)? Why should voters approve higher property tax rates if county government is just going to waste the money on frivolous spending and give-a-ways?
Valid, valid point, Greg.
“the clock is running out to move forward with the $20.5 million program because it’s funded by federal pandemic recovery dollars that must be allocated by the end of the year.”
That wasn’t hard. All I did was read the post.
J, Harris County could have allocated that $20.5 million dollars to help fund government services, public health, infrastructure, transportation, the county jail, etc. Using it to fund a government handout to a handful of people while, at the same time, raising local property tax rates because the County is broke, is the problem. Why should taxpayers give the County more money to spend while they are just giving away their existing funds?
For more possible allocation options, just Google, “How can ARPA funds be used?”
I looked at Harris County finances for FY 2023, it shows 6.8 billion came in and 6.0 billion spent. So it doesn’t look like Harris County is broke. If you are a senior and live in your primary residence then you have a homeowner’s exemption and a senior exemption and your county taxes are vastly reduced if not negligible.
Any time I see the words giveaway and handout with regard to aid programs, that usually means a Republican is howling about some help being given to persons of color when the money could have gone to whites. That is probably the source of Bill White’s faux outrage that I suspect you are again channeling.
David Fagan, you want weigh in here re: how much the CoH is going owe the employees of HFD pretty soon ?
J, I don’t know where you get your numbers. In 2018, the Harris County budget was $1.49 billion; in 2023, it was $2.7 billion (a huge increase in county revenue due to higher property appraisals, but an even larger increase in county spending). Despite record revenue, we are now facing a budget deficit. Don’t take my word for it – according to the HC Budget Director, county government spending has accelerated in recent years, and the county now faces a budget deficit of $129 million next year – see the link below. We just can’t afford more handouts.
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/harris-county/2024/06/05/489638/harris-county-faces-a-129-million-deficit-in-fiscal-year-2025-budget-director-warns/
https://www.harriscountytx.gov/Financial-Transparency/Traditional-Finances
J, agreed, that high-level chart does show Harris County taking in about $800 million more in revenue than it paid out in expenditures for FY2023. Since Budget Director Ramos is projecting a $129 million budget deficit next year and Commissioners are proposing a large property tax increase, I think it’s safe to assume that chart is misleading (the County isn’t actually sitting on a $800 million surplus).
I heard in a TV series that one thing that Cops don’t do is vote for Democrats.
But they do think all the money should go to them to make us feel safe, but the more we spend, the more they want. When will they learn to be efficient?
From an article;
“As it stands now, nearly 59% of the proposed budget is allocated to public safety, including:
An $11.7 million budget increase to the Public Defenders Office;
Continued funding of $51.2M for outsourcing of prisoners from the Harris County Jail — the county’s biggest expense, according to Ramos;
Investing $1.5M in overtime to help reduce the court backlog of open criminal cases;
A $3.4 million budget increase for the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences to help expedite evidence processing.
The proposal also includes a budget increase of $26.4 million for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, for a total of $714,866,485, split between three subcategories within the department:
Patrol & Administration: $301,231,154
Detention: $306,066,699
Medical: $107,568,632”
Let us paint a picture of how bad things are, and they seem to stay that way even when the MAGAs are in charge.