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Texas Attorney General Sues Harris County to Block Guaranteed Income Program

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Texas,Attorney General,Harris County

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Harris County to prevent the implementation of a new guaranteed income pilot program. The program, called Uplift Harris, aims to provide financial assistance to families in the county's poorest neighborhoods by offering monthly cash payments of $500 for 18 months. The county had allocated $20.5 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds for the program, which was set to begin this month. Conservatives have opposed the program and sought legal action to stop it.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Harris County on Tuesday to block a new guaranteed income pilot program that would provide financial assistance to families in the county’s poorest neighborhoods.

Conservatives balked at the program after Harris County commissioners approved it in June and have since tried to stop it. State Sen., a Houston-area Republican who frequently has sought to undercut the county’s Democratic leadership, asked Paxton earlier this year to declare the law unconstitutional.

“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. I am suing to stop officials in Harris County from abusing public funds for political gain.”

“This lawsuit is nothing more than another attack on Harris County government by Republican state leaders looking to make headlines,” Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said in a statement. “This program is about helping people in a real way by giving them direct cash assistance — something governments have always done. I cannot for the life of me understand why any public servant would be opposed to that.

 

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