A city in New York is considering a one-year pilot program that would grant some of its residents a guaranteed basic income every month.
The City of Newburgh has been planning the basic income plot for at least a couple of years, according to Alexandra Church, the town’s director of planning and development.
Church says that the program will benefit community members who are “extremely” low income, which is well over a third of the city’s population.
“What we decided was to focus on those who are extremely low-income in our community. That ranges from $24,000 a year for a family of one, to $34,000 for a family of four… And in overall numbers, that’s about 6,000 people that would be eligible, which comes out to about 36 percent of our population.”
The plan involves giving qualifying people a debit card that would allow them to spend $300 per month on paying their bills and building their savings. To start, Church says the pilot would only apply to 110 households.
When asked by one of the city council members if there would be any restrictions on how the recipients could spend the money, Church said no, and that’s the point.
“To say this quite bluntly, there will be one percent of the people in any of these studies that use it for things that are not positive in their lives. But 99 percent of them will not… So, is it worth it for that 99 percent that use it for food and housing, to fix their car, and things that are beneficial for their lives?”
Countless American cities and states have been experimenting with guaranteed or universal basic income for several years now, including in Maryland, Los Angeles, Georgia, New York City, Ohio and dozens more.
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