Tacoma gets money from Twitter CEO to fund universal basic income pilot program
Dec 11, 2020, 5:34 AM
Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards. (Photo courtesy of the City of Tacoma)
(Photo courtesy of the City of Tacoma)
Part of a $15 million donation from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to U.S. mayors will be coming Tacoma’s way, providing funding for a long-sought universal basic income pilot program.
Tacoma mayor considers universal basic income to ‘level the playing field’
Tacoma — one of 25 cities to receive money from Dorsey’s donation — will be getting $500,000. That will be in addition to another $100,000 from the Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI) group.
Mayor Victoria Woodards is a founding member of the MGI, and has long pushed for direct, recurring cash payments to those in need as a means of tackling poverty and wealth inequality.
“We’re grateful for this generous grant that will allow us to accelerate our pilot building, and we are excited that we will soon be able to offer support to the Tacoma community members who need it the most,” she said in a statement issued to the Tacoma News Tribune.
Specifics for how — and to whom — money from the pilot program will be distributed have yet to be announced, with Woodards telling the News Tribune that the plan is have more details by March 2021.
WA lawmaker looks to break ground on universal basic income
The hope is to model it off a similar program in Stockton, Calif., where a portion of the city’s residents received direct monthly $500 payments. Roughly 43% of participants in that program worked full- or part-time; 11% took care of parents or children; 20% had some sort of disability; and just 2% said they weren’t looking for work. Of the $500 they received monthly, 40% went toward food, 25% to sales and other merchandise, and 12% was been spent on utility payments.
The eventual goal for Tacoma is to help supplement the income of impoverished, working class communities.
“We’ve got people who get up every day and go to work, and still don’t make enough to support themselves and their families,” Woodards told KIRO Radio in July. “How can we support them, so that they can continue to move forward? I think guaranteed income is one of the ways that we can level the playing field.”
