North Cook News

A $42 million guaranteed income pilot program announced in Cook County will benefit the residents immensely.

Toni Preckwinkle, President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, announced Cook County's new guaranteed income pilot program, which will distribute millions of taxpayer dollars to other Cook County residents in the name of equity.

"Proud to announce our $42 million guaranteed income pilot program today. It's the largest investment in the country and Cook County is the first to commit to a permanent long-term program. The #CookCountyPromise #GuaranteedIncome Pilot has the potential to transform communities and even reduce violence. It's why @cookcountygov is committed to making the program permanent – so families can move on from relief and into long-term resiliency. The United States has a long history of equating economic success or failure with an individual's hard work and talents alone, without any regard to the larger structural forces at play. Yet, we cannot solve the growing problems of entrenched poverty and income inequality if we refuse to acknowledge the other significant, systemic factors - such as a family lineage, structural racism and lifetime of unequal access to financial resources," tweeted Preckwinkle.

Cook County has announced a new guaranteed income pilot program, which will distribute $500 per month to 3,250 residents for two years, ABC reported. The County's $42 million program is the largest taxpayer-funded guaranteed income initiative in the country. Cook County has promised to make it permanent. Applications will open in the fall to Cook County residents at or below 250% of the federal poverty rate.

Positive aspects of a guaranteed income program are that recipients could return to school or stay home to care for a relative, according to The Balance. Another pro is that those programs have lower administrative costs than traditional welfare. Some downsides of guaranteed income programs are that they can lead to inflation, they do not lead to an improved standard of living in the long run, they do not incentivize people to get jobs, they lower the labor force participation rate, and many people who are not recipients do not support them.

A 2019 Gallup poll found that the majority of Americans do not support guaranteed income programs. 60% of men and 54% of women who responded to the survey indicated that they oppose guaranteed income. The programs were more popular among Canadians and British people, with around three-quarters of respondents from Canada and the U.K. signaling their support of guaranteed income.