The political kommissars on the Austin, Texas City Council stumbled slightly on their way to dragging the municipality into nirvana. A report tells us, "The Austin City Council decided to postpone a vote on a $1.18 million guaranteed income plan after several members raised questions about the program and requested the delay."
This is what happens when repairing potholes is beneath the dignity of an elected official.
Instead of devoting their time to addressing problems that affect all residents of the Live Music Capital of the World: crime, property taxes, and potholes, council members go trend-surfing and attempt to ride the wave of the latest in leftist public policy ideas.
The guaranteed income plan or UBI is one of the latest expensive, tax dollar funded programs that appeal to leftists who have never run so much as lemonade stand.
Guaranteed income programs send the lucky participants a check every month in return for well . . . Nothing.
It’s free money and all that's required of the recipient is a pulse.
The Austin plan was starting small — don’t be reassured, many bad ideas start small, like drug addiction — with only $1.18 million dollars awarded to 85 city households. And as far as the council was concerned, that was pretty much the plan.
Which was too vague even for the dreamy-eyed utopians on Austin’s council.
The only Republican felt the lack of details was a red flag, "This certainly gives me pause, and I'd like to better understand the program's anticipated outcomes before voting. We owe it to the community to consider all aspects of the process before voting."
City bureaucrats didn’t understand the problem. They assured the council, "The details of the selection criteria, expected outcomes and performance measures for this pilot will need to be worked out with our vendor after the contract is approved."
In other words, shut up and let unelected bureaucrats do what they want with the money.
And if the plan amounts to the cart first, and the horse later, then so be it.
That wasn’t good enough and the council hit the brakes.
Even if the staff finally produces a plan, we aren’t optimistic that it will be more than leftist rainbows and balloons boilerplate. The city is teaming up with one of the dreaded non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to distribute the funds. This time called UpTogether. The UpTogether website is a saccharine testimony to leftist buzzwords and obfuscation.
In its " About" section UpTogether assures readers, "UpTogether is not a program. It’s not a charity. UpTogether is a community, a movement and a platform to highlight, invest in and accelerate the initiatives people in historically undervalued communities are taking to improve their lives and move up, together."
Why, it sounds like the Koch Brothers and rugged individualism have gained a foothold in the non-profit space.
Nowhere does the site explain the organization’s raison d'être is giving away money with no strings attached.
Eligibility details will be particularly useful for the council’s decision.
It wouldn’t want to emulate the UBI program in Gainesville, Florida — a red state no less — where the most important qualification is participants be an excon.
Even if Austin’s lucky winners aren’t recent graduates from a penal institution, the truth is the money from the "compassionate" council will only be subsidizing dysfunction and bad decisions on the part of recipients.
Residents who graduated from high school, married before having children and avoided prison will be seeing their tax dollars go to those who for the most part didn’t.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker's bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.