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Political Rewind: Can guaranteed basic income programs help Georgians get out of poverty?
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The Panel:
Amir Farokhi – Atlanta City Councilmember
Kyle Wingfield – CEO and President, Georgia Public Policy Foundation
Tamar Hallerman – Senior Reporter, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Breakdown:
1. Where does Georgia stand in terms of income inequality?
- After the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. began to advocate for a guaranteed annual income. He wrote about the matter in his 1967 book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?
- Georgia is among the top 15 states with the highest economic racial inequality when looking at income.
- The city of Atlanta leads the nation in income inequality and lack of economic mobility.
2. Keisha Lance Bottoms started a guaranteed basic income program before leaving her post as Atlanta Mayor.
- The city's 60th mayor launched the $2.5 million dollar program in her last week in office.
- The program is funded largely with money from the development of the Centennial Yards project downtown.
- The program will distribute $500 per month to 300 low-income recipients for a year.
3. Another program will launch in Georgia and include residents of Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward neighborhood.
- Councilman Amir Farokhi announced the "In Her Hands" program late last year.
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$13 million pilot is privately funded and one of the largest of its kind.
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For two years, $850 per month will supplement the income of 650 women who are at or below the federal poverty line.
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The program will also include locations in suburban Atlanta and Southwest Georgia.
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4. Critics of the guaranteed income programs say recipients lose eligibility to other benefits.
- They argue, the structure of our entire welfare system is predicated on the idea that recipients aren't working full time; if they were, they wouldn't qualify for many benefits in many cases.
Tomorrow on Political Rewind:
The Atlanta Journal Constitution's politics reporter Greg Bluestein joins our panel.