Mayors for a Guaranteed Income Expands Advocacy after More Than Doubling Membership in Two Months
Saint Paul, MN, Long Beach, CA, Hudson, NY, Oakland, CA, and Pittsburgh, PA will roll out full-scale pilot programs
Sept. 16, 2020 – Stockton, Calif. - Mayors for a Guaranteed Income has announced that its membership has grown from 11 founding members to 25 mayors from across the country.
The fourteen new Mayors for a Guaranteed Income members are Mayors LaToya Cantrell (New Orleans, LA); Jenny Durkan (Seattle, WA); Jorge Elorza (Providence, RI); Robert Garcia (Long Beach, CA); Kamal Johnson (Hudson, NY); Jim Kenney (Philadelphia, PA); Alex Morse (Holyoke, MA); Svante Myrick (Ithaca, NY); Shawyn Patterson-Howard (Mt. Vernon, NY); William Peduto (Pittsburgh, PA); Lauren Poe (Gainesville, FL); Satya Rhodes-Conway (Madison, WI); Andre Sayegh (Paterson, NJ); and Levar Stoney (Richmond, VA).
The founding members of the coalition are Mayors Michael D. Tubbs (Stockton, CA); Ras J. Baraka (Newark, NJ); Stephen Benjamin (Columbia, SC); Aja Brown (Compton, CA); Melvin Carter (Saint Paul, MN); Eric Garcetti (Los Angeles, CA); Keisha Lance Bottoms (Atlanta, GA); Chokwe Antar Lumumba (Jackson, MS); Adrian Perkins (Shreveport, LA); Libby Schaaf (Oakland, CA); and Victoria Woodards (Tacoma, WA).
“In Stockton, we found that giving folks agency and dignity to manage their needs with cash is the most straightforward way to address poverty, inequity and emergency of the personal and pandemic proportion,” said Stockton Mayor Michael D. Tubbs, founder of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income. “City-level pragmatism has now taken center stage through the demonstrable success of our pilot and we welcome these new cities into the fold. We are excited for the continued growth of guaranteed income in America through civil servants like myself who want to be more and do more.”
In addition to advocating for a federal guaranteed income and supporting narrative change efforts to highlight the lived experiences of economic insecurity, five mayors have already forged ahead with plans to implement guaranteed income pilots: Mayor Robert Garcia (Long Beach, CA) introduced a plan to pilot a guaranteed income that was unanimously approved by the city council in early September 2020. In Hudson, NY, Mayor Kamal Johnson has announced HudsonUP, whereby 20 low-income residents will receive a guaranteed income of $500 per month for the next five years. In Saint Paul, MN, Mayor Melvin Carter has issued an executive order authorizing the creation of the People’s Prosperity Pilot, which will provide up to 150 Saint Paul families with $500 per month in guaranteed income for up to 18 months, beginning Fall 2020. His will be the first to leverage public funding to provide a guaranteed income to residents. In Pittsburgh, PA, Mayor Peduto has announced the Assured Cash Experiment of Pittsburgh (AcePGH), which in Q4 of 2020 will begin providing $500 to 200 Pittsburgh residents over 24 months. Designed in response to a 2019 Gender Equity Commission Report, the pilot will serve 100 black women and 100 randomly selected Pittsburgh residents. In Oakland, CA, Mayor Libby Schaaf announced a partnership with the Family Independence Initiative to work to secure funding to serve 300 families with children.
Since its establishment in June 2020, the coalition has created a significant increase in support for guaranteed income policy across the country, passing a resolution in support of guaranteed income at the United States Conference of Mayors and submitting a sign on letter to House and Senate leadership in support of the Monthly Economic Crisis Support Act.
In support of this growth and a groundswell of interest in guaranteed income, MGI has partnered with What Works Cities on a six-session online learning opportunity to elevate lessons learned and share best practices with the coalition and additional cities across the country. Interested parties can learn more or register here.
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ABOUT MAYORS FOR A GUARANTEED INCOME
Building off his first-of-its-kind guaranteed income pilot (SEED) and rooted in Dr. King’s legacy, Mayor Michael D. Tubbs (Stockton, CA) and the Economic Security Project founded Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI) in June 2020. Mayors will come together in this network to advocate for a guaranteed income—direct, recurring cash payments—that lifts all of our communities, building a resilient, just America. Follow MGI on Twitter and Facebook.