Yfat Yossifor | KERA
Harris County is again at the center of a legal challenge filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who Thursday deemed a revised guaranteed income program unconstitutional.
“What we are looking at now is just ensuring those dollars go towards adjusting poverty in Harris County,” County Judge Lina Hidalgo said during a Thursday press conference.
“There are always other strategies and we are just going to keep the commitment,” Hidalgo said.
Paxton earlier this year struck down the county’s efforts to provide monthly stipends to lower-income families. He requested the state prohibit payments under the county’s pilot guaranteed income program.
The Texas Supreme Court in June granted the state’s request, deeming Uplift Harris unconstitutional.
RELATED: Harris County officials approve new version of Uplift Harris program
In August, Uplift Harris 2.0 was approved by commissioners with revisions to the program in an attempt to dodge any potential litigation. The revised program would’ve provided nearly 2,000 families who were already selected for the program with $500 monthly payments through preloaded debit cards.
“Harris County acts as though the Texas Constitution does not apply to them and as though they do not have to abide by the Texas Supreme Court’s rulings,” Paxton said in a comment Thursday.
“Using public funds in this way directly violates the law,” Paxton said. “Harris County is willing to undermine the legal process out of apparent desperation to push this money into certain hands as quickly as possible.”
Paxton in a press release asserted the program “sought to redistribute public money with no strings attached.”
In August, Hidalgo said if the new program gets stuck in court, the money will be reallocated to county programs “to support people living in poverty.”
“We do know however that there’s nothing stopping the state from suing us again even under this program,” she said in August. “We believe this should really quash any potential argument that it does not stand up to the law.”
The application portal for the program closed in February with more than 82,000 applicants. Only about 2% of the low-income families who applied for the basic income program would have actually been selected to participate.
Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee in a statement said he’s ready to defend the county and the program in court.
“If it wasn’t clear before, it should be clear now that the opposition to this program is not about concern for the law; it’s about using people living in as a means to score political points,” Menefee said.
“In Harris County, we understand the need to tackle the real problems people face,” he said.
