Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that his office secured a stay preventing Harris County from pursuing a second guaranteed income pilot program, Uplift Harris, which was later rebranded to “Uplift 2.0.”
Initially, the county voted to give $500 payments for 18 months to 1,928 low-income Harris County households as selected by lottery. The county was eyeing its leftover $20.5 million in unspent federal aid from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The original intent of the ARPA money was to provide economic relief from the COVID-19 shutdowns.
In April, Paxton sued the court on state constitutional grounds. The Texas Supreme Court upheld an indefinite stay order while litigation continued.
When ruling on the original program, the court noted that “the State has raised serious doubts about the constitutionality of the Uplift Harris program, and this potential violation of the Texas Constitution could not be remedied or undone if payments were to commence while the underlying appeal proceeds.”
Democrat County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Democrat Commissioner Rodney Ellis (Precinct 1) called Paxton’s lawsuit “cruel.”
Harris County claimed that, under federal requirements, it must “commit” funds to Uplift Harris by the end of the year, lest the county lose access to the money.
In August, the Harris County Commissioners Court attempted to restart the program. Upon introducing the motion to amend the contract for operating vendor GiveDirectly, which helps administer the program, Hidalgo rebranded it to “Uplift 2.0.”
The sole Republican, Commissioner Tom S. Ramsey of Precinct 3, cast the only “no” vote.
At the time, Hidalgo noted, “There’s nothing stopping the state from suing us again, even under this program.”
Her words proved prophetic. A month later, Paxton sued Harris County.
However, she felt confident they would win in court: “We believe that this should really quash any potential argument that it does not stand up to the law.”
The Texas State Supreme Court saw otherwise, as it granted another stay order on December 6 in which Harris County must “refrain from distributing funds under the Program during the pendency of this appeal or until further order of this Court.”
“Harris County is not above the law and cannot ignore the Texas Constitution,” said Attorney General Paxton in a press release. “They made a blatant attempt to end-run a Texas Supreme Court ruling by duplicating their unlawful handout program, and we have successfully blocked them yet again.”
Under the order, the Office of the Attorney General must submit its brief by December 20. At that point, Harris County has 14 days to file a brief in response. Harris County must also commit the federal funds elsewhere before they expire on December 31.
Nevertheless, Hidalgo said that if Paxton sued the program again, the county would transfer the money to existing programs to support Harris County citizens facing poverty.
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