Texas Attorney General sues to stop guaranteed income program for Houston-area residents

HOUSTON (AP) — Texas’ attorney general filed a lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to stop a guaranteed income program set to start this month for Houston-area residents.

The program by Harris County, where Houston is located, is set to provide “no-strings-attached” $500 monthly cash payments to 1,928 county residents for 18 months. Those who qualified for the program must have a household income below 200% of the federal poverty line and need to live in one of the identified high-poverty zip codes.

The program is funded by $20.5 million from the American Rescue Plan, the pandemic relief law signed by President Joe Biden in 2021.

Federal pandemic funding has prompted dozens of cities and counties across the country to implement guaranteed income programs as ways to reduce poverty, lessen inequality and get people working.

In his lawsuit filed in civil court in Houston, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton dubbed the program the “Harris Handout” and described it as a “socialist experiment” by county officials that violates the Texas Constitution and is “an illegal and illegitimate government overreach.”

“This scheme is plainly unconstitutional,” Paxton said in a statement. “Taxpayer money must be spent lawfully and used to advance the public interest, not merely redistributed with no accountability or reasonable expectation of a general benefit.”

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