This is the opening act. The main event comes later.
A judge on Thursday sided with Harris County’s latest iteration of a guaranteed income program, denying Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office’s application for a temporary restraining order aimed at stopping the initiative from moving forward.
The ruling comes a month after Paxton sued to prevent the county from launching the program.
Harris County has spent much of 2024 trying to use some of its federal COVID-19 recovery funds to provide financial support to struggling residents. Its first attempt was Uplift Harris, a guaranteed income pilot program designed to send $500 monthly payments to low-income residents who met the eligibility criteria and were chosen by a random lottery. After the initial program was blocked by the state, the county made modifications to the plan and tried again, renaming it the Community Prosperity Program. Thursday’s ruling could allow the rebranded program to move forward.
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The Community Prosperity Program works by providing selected residents with a preloaded debit card that limits spending to categories such as housing, utilities and groceries, the county said.
“Harris County addressed the State’s concerns about Uplift Harris, but the Attorney General still felt the need to sue the County again,” Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said in a statement on Thursday. “This shows that the Attorney General’s lawsuit is not about the law; it’s about using people living in poverty as a means to score political points.”
See here for the previous update. Not to be flip, but a district court judge in Harris County approved the original Uplift Harris program, so there was little reason to think this lawsuit would go any differently. All that matters is the Supreme Court. We’ll get there when we get there.