Prince George’s County Council adopts pilot for universal income

An effort to combat generational poverty and to foster economic mobility for residents living at or below the poverty line is coming to Prince George’s County.

In an 8-0 vote, the County Council on Tuesday approved a $4 million pilot project that would guarantee basic income to qualifying participants, modeled after a Stockton, Calif., program that gave randomly chosen residents $500 a month over 24 months — with no strings attached.

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The Guaranteed Basic Income Pilot Program in Prince George’s, which was proposed by the more left-leaning majority of the all-Democratic council, found support among more moderate members such as Mel Franklin (At Large) and Sydney J. Harrison (District 9), who signed on as sponsors. Many Prince Georgians are “intractably trapped” in generational poverty with few prospects for escaping, the resolution stated, and the pilot project seeks to address “closing the racial wealth gap.”

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Source: The Washington Post