Political Rewind: Can guaranteed basic income programs help Georgians get out of poverty?

Credit: Nattanan Kanchanaprat, Canva

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.

•  $13 million pilot is privately funded and one of the largest of its kind.

  •  For two years, $850 per month will supplement the income of 650 women who are at or below the federal poverty line. 

  • The program will also include locations in suburban Atlanta and Southwest Georgia.  

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.