Bloomberg: NYC Guaranteed Income Program Goes From Pilot to Permanent
March 17, 2023 New York City is experimenting with the expansion of their universal basic income (UBI) program with the transition from a new pilot project to a permanent program. The program, called The Bridge Project, was started in 2021 and involves providing cash payments to new mothers each month in New York. Funded by the Monarch Foundation, the initiative was meant to research the effects of guaranteed cash during the first three years of a child’s life. Originally, the project allocated monthly debit cards to pregnant mothers in northern Manhattan, but in upcoming months, these benefits ($1000/month for 18 months and then $500/month for another 18 months) will be expanded to 1,100 new mothers in Rochester and all boroughs except the Bronx. Addressing racial disparities and economic inequalities post-covid through guaranteed income programs has been in discussion in local governments across the nation, but The Bridge Project is the first of its kind to make a commitment to permanency, even without guaranteed funding beyond their initial $32 million budget. Megha Agarwal, co-founder of the project, hopes their breadth of data that shows direct evidence of the value of cash transfers will provide an argument for similar programs to be funded by public dollars instead of philanthropically. Public funding for UBI could be a reality soon—New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams proposed during her state of the city speech that guaranteed income programs should be supported by a $5 million dollar budget and new legislation is currently being introduced by the city council that will establish a structure wherein the city government can facilitate and even fund cash-assistance programs. Similar legislation is also being sponsored by New York State lawmakers to assist pregnant mothers with the first 18 months of their children’s lives as well as the last three months of their pregnancy. Research into various small pilot programs for UBI has been inconclusive in many cases, such as in the Alaska Permanent Fund, and other programs like the post-pandemic federal Child Tax Credit failed to achieve permanency while it was evident that child poverty had been reduced. The Bridge Project is not only a pioneer of fully functioning guaranteed income programs, but they have also made a commitment to prolong research from an in-house team in order to expand statistical data of benefits and inspire similar models.