Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has secured a stay against Harris County's latest attempt to implement a guaranteed income program. This follows the county's launch of a redesigned version of the program, after the Texas Supreme Court halted their original initiative. The new version has faced criticism for higher administrative costs, leading to Paxton’s legal challenge.
The first program, which was stopped by the court in April, aimed to distribute public money without strings attached, which the Attorney General's office argued was a breach of the Texas Constitution, Harris County didn't wait long to craft a nearly identical initiative despite the Supreme Court's freeze, leading to the fresh injunction, according to a statement released by the office of the Attorney General.
This contention hinges on constitutional interpretations where the Texas Constitution forbids entities like counties from granting public money to individuals, a strong stance reiterated by the Texas Supreme Court in their previous ruling; they emphasized severe concerns about the constitutionality of Harris County's Uplift program. "The State has raised serious doubts about the constitutionality of the Uplift Harris program, and this potential violation of the Texas Constitution could not be remedied or undone if payments were to commence while the underlying appeal proceeds," stated the court in its decision, according to the Attorney General's release.
Attorney General Paxton, reinforcing his position, declared, "Harris County is not above the law and cannot ignore the Texas Constitution," asserting his commitment to upholding the law his office hailed the latest ruling as another successful block to Harris County’s plans, "They made a blatant attempt to end-run a Texas Supreme Court ruling by duplicating their unlawful handout program, and we have successfully blocked them yet again," in a statement obtained by the office of the Attorney General.
