Guaranteed Income: A Roadmap to Policy Solutions for California
In 2019 Stockton SEED was the first ever Mayoral led city-wide guaranteed income pilot in the country, eventually leading to the creation of Mayor’s for Guaranteed Income (MGI). Now numbering over 100+ cities around the country, MGI helped catalyze the newly formed Counties for Guaranteed Income (CGI), which will work at the county level across the country to ensure that all Americans have an income floor.
Building on the success of early GI pilots, MGI, and other cash-based policies (federal Child Tax Credit) and the growing movement around Guaranteed Income (GI), in 2021, the State of California launched the first-ever statewide GI pilot, providing $35MM to fund GI pilots across the state with the ultimate goal of advancing learning and longer-term policy solutions around GI and cash-based supports.
Moving from a once radical idea to a government-funded statewide pilot shows how far the GI movement has come — the idea that government should provide people with unconditional cash support to ensure that everyone has a minimum level of income to meet basic needs. While there is no single legislative answer, there are promising policy solutions (e.g. Child Tax Credit) and local and statewide pilots, including ones focused on safety net reforms taking place in California. For example, LA County is testing changes to the existing safety net on the economic well-being of people receiving public benefits. These potential safety net reforms, together with emerging success stories from local Guaranteed Income pilots, suggest we are closer than we have ever been to longer-term economic security for all!
Join us as we:
- Discuss the future of the GI movement in California and nationally
- Highlight what we hope to learn through research & evaluation
- Elevate a local cash support pilot addressing safety net reform in CA; and
- Share opportunities for philanthropy and the public sector to catalyze ongoing efforts to move from pilots to policy solutions
