AG Ken Paxton sues Harris County to stop guaranteed income for low-income residents
AUSTIN — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Harris County officials on Monday to stop a pilot initiative to give low-income families and residents $500 a month.
Harris County launched the Uplift Harris program earlier this year. Using $20.5 million from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, Harris County leaders launched the program to tackle poverty and health disparities by providing a no-strings-attached $500 monthly payment for 18 months to 1,928 randomly selected low-income applicants.
In Monday’s lawsuit, Paxton argued that the Texas Constitution forbids local governments from giving out money that will benefit only certain individuals instead of the public at large.
Using a lottery to randomly select participants also violates the Texas Bill of Rights, which requires government programs to be applied equally to all eligible participants, the lawsuit said, adding: “Here, the selection of individuals to receive payments under the Harris Handout is plainly arbitrary.”
The Republican attorney general is asking a state district judge in Harris County to stop the program and prohibit the county from distributing the money.
Paxton accused Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and county commissioners of “abusing public funds for political gain.”
“This socialist experiment by Lina Hidalgo and the progressive democrats responsible for the Harris County disaster is an illegal and illegitimate government overreach,” the lawsuit said.
Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee criticized the lawsuit as an attack on Harris County.
“This program is about helping people in a real way by giving them direct cash assistance — something governments have always done,” Menefee said in a statement.
Menefee previously defended the program’s legality in a Jan. 30 letter to Paxton, saying the state’s Local Government Code authorizes counties to administer community and economic development projects approved by federal law.
Menefee also pointed to another state statute that allows a county to provide assistance to low-income residents who cannot support themselves.
“Numerous Attorney General Opinions have concluded that counties have broad discretion to determine who qualifies for support and the nature and extent of that support,” Menefee said.
Paxton’s lawsuit comes a few months after Texas Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-houston, asked the attorney general’s office to determine if the county violated a clause in the state constitution that forbids using public funds as gifts toward individuals.
Harris County is home to Houston, the state’s largest city, and includes 4.8 million residents, according to the U.S. Census.
The Harris County Commissioners Court approved the program in June 2023 on a 4-1 party-line vote, with all Democrats voting in favor.
Eligible residents must be below 200 percent of the federal poverty line — that’s about $60,000 a year for a family of four — and also reside in a designated high-poverty ZIP code.
The county received more than 82,000 applications, and selected participants were set to begin receiving money as soon as April 24.
Harris County is not the only Texas county to launch a guaranteed income initiative. Austin began a similar pilot program in 2022 that gave 135 households $1,000 a month for one year.
Paxton did not sue Austin when the program launched.