Newark's mayor exploring universal basic income program
Newark's mayor exploring universal basic income program
Mar 14 2019 09:53AM EDT
NEW JERSEY (FOX 5 NY) - Getting a paycheck for doing
nothing could be in the future for residents of New Jersey's largest city. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka says the city is
going to study a pilot program to provide a universal basic income, or
basically guaranteeing income for all residents whether they have a job or not.
He made the statement during his annual State of the City
address Tuesday night at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
The city has launched a taskforce to see if the program
is feasible with help from the Economic Security Project and the Jain
Institute.
"We believe in Universal Basic Income, especially in
a time where studies have shown that families that have a crisis of just $400
in a month may experience a setback that may be difficult even impossible to
recover from," Baraka said.
He noted that a third of the city still lives in poverty.
He didn't release any more details on
the plan, like how it would be funded or when a final decision would be made.
There has not been a successful long-term Universal Basic
Income program. A small basic-income
program that was tested in Finland was ended after one year.
Baraka was re-elected last year to a second term as mayor
of the city of 280,000 residents.
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