Harris County is being sued once again by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over the county’s planned guaranteed income program, despite changes to the program intended to avoid legal challenges by limiting its scope.
Paxton’s lawsuit mirrors his April challenge to the $20.5 million program, arguing the Texas Constitution forbids governments from giving money to individuals. The Texas Supreme Court sided with Paxton in a June ruling that blocked no-strings-attached $500 monthly checks from being distributed to about 1,900 low-income residents while the lawsuit made its way through the courts system.
“Harris County acts as though the Texas Constitution does not apply to them and as though they do not have to abide by the Texas Supreme Court’s rulings,” Paxton wrote in a news release announcing the lawsuit. “Using public funds in this way directly violates the law. Harris County is willing to undermine the legal process out of apparent desperation to push this money into certain hands as quickly as possible.”
Paxton is seeking an injunction to block the county from continuing to implement the program or distribute the stipends, which his motion says is set to begin in December.
It is unclear how close the county is to distributing the first round of stipends. Harris County Public Health, which is tasked with administering the program, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
County officials are in a hurry to launch the program because it is funded through federal pandemic relief dollars that must be appropriated by the end of the year. In hopes of meeting that deadline and circumventing the court’s earlier ruling, Commissioners Court in August approved a plan to distribute pre-loaded debit cards that restrict spending to approved essential needs rather than monthly checks that could be spent on anything.
The Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of the lawsuit in June, but it did signal it was unlikely to rule in the county’s favor if it had.
The initial version of the program was blocked after the 1,900 individuals already had been notified of their selection and a day before the first round of checks were put in the mail.
Democrats on Commissioners Court said they approved the modified program in hopes of keeping their word to the program’s participants. The participants were chosen through a lottery and must have incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty line to be eligible, according to the county.
Commissioners plan to spend the $20.5 million even if they lose this latest legal battle, County Judge Lina Hidalgo said Thursday, adding that court members anticipated Paxton’s lawsuit.
“I don’t know that it is about legality,” Hidalgo said. “It is very disappointing, but we’re going to use those funds for other anti-poverty programs, even if they’re not as effective as these (guaranteed income) programs have proven to be.”
In his latest lawsuit, Paxton argued the modifications still do not exempt the program from a state constitutional ban on giving away public funds. To circumvent that constitutional provision, the program must accomplish a legitimate public purpose, the county must retain control of the funds to ensure their proper use and the county must receive a return benefit, the lawsuit argued.
County Attorney Christian Menefee said the county took the Supreme Court’s earlier ruling into account by limiting participants’ spending to essential needs, such as housing, utilities, transportation, groceries and medical care.
“If it wasn’t clear before, it should be clear now that the opposition to this program is not about concern for the law; it’s about using people living in poverty as a means to score political points,” Menefee wrote in a statement. “Once again, I am ready to defend the county and this program in court.”
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