Kimberly Wipfler File Photo
Brackeen: Time to try UBI.
Darryl Brackeen says New Haven has a way to help working-class families get their child tax credits back — and test out a longer-term poverty-fighting idea in the process.
Brackeen, an Upper Westville alder, has proposed that New Haven use some of its $115 million in federal pandemic-relief American Rescue Plan (ARPA) money to give qualifying families $250 a month for a year and a half. Many of these families qualified to receive the same monthly payment in increased federal child tax credits last year, a new program championed by New Haven U.S. Rep. Rosa Delauro that expired at the end of 2021.
Brackeen has submitted a formal proposal to create his program as a “Guaranteed Basic Income Pilot Program” modeled on “universal basic income (UBI)” programs in other cities like Stockton, California, which have tried out to help struggling households in recent years.
“We have the 1 percent, and then there’s everyone else. And this gap is widening, economically. How do we even the playing field? Universal basic income is one of the tools in the budget to try to begin to chip away at the crisis we’re in,” Brackeen said during an interview Monday afternoon at G Cafe.
Brackeen chairs the Board of Alders Human Services Committee, which may be where his proposal ends up for an initial hearing.
“We oversee the work ensuring that the working class and the poor are well-taken care of, and it’s our job to find ways to solve the problem,” he said.
He said this proposal is in direct response to the reversal of increased federal child tax credit payments. Beginning last July, families around the country received between $250-$300 per month per child as part of the pandemic-relief American Rescue Plan. These payments slashed child poverty from 15.8 percent to 11.9 in the first month, according to a Columbia University study. After December, these payments stopped, and Congress has failed to reinstate the program, which set the record for the country’s largest ever one-year decrease in poverty.
“I believe we’re in a crisis. The federal government gives guidelines towards this cash assistance programming. In this moment, cash assistance is one way to alleviate the emergent moment,” Brackeen said.
“Two hundred fifty dollars a month is grocery shopping for a month; it could be the difference between a car breaking down, needing an oil change, or tire fixed to get to work. It could be transportation on the bus line. It actually can make a world of a difference, and we have the money. Why not do it for the good of the people?”
The proposal Brackeen submitted outlines an 18-month period in which 4,000 low-income New Haven households (one resident per household) with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty line ($53,000 for a household of four) would receive the $250 a month.
The Elicker Administration recently unveiled a proposed spending plan for $53 million of the ARPA money to support “housing, vocational technical education, youth engagement, business support, and climate resiliency initiatives.” This proposal leaves a remaining balance of $24.5 million, after $38 million that has already been approved. The cost of the UBI plan would not exceed $18 million, according to a letter Brackeen submitted to the Board of Alders ahead of Monday night’s meeting.
The city’s new Office of Community Resiliency would facilitate Brackeen’s proposed program and select residents through a lottery process.
Brackeen said the city would work with an outside research group, which has yet to be selected, to conduct a study on the effect of the program, with an eye toward possible expansion.
Brackeen said the initial proposal is not set in stone, merely a launch point for discussion. He said he is open to compromise with Mayor Elicker and his fellow alders, some of whom he said are “really excited and on board.”
“Everyone has had an opportunity to give a plan and an idea on how to spend this ARPA funding. This is mine. I’m not saying it’s the right plan; I’m not saying it’s the only plan. But it’s something I’m bringing to the table.”
As to whether he has concerns about the public reception of his proposal, Brackeen said, “I’m more interested in saving people in this emergent moment, to be honest. Lives are on the line; children’s lives are on the line.”