Albuquerque’s try at “UBI”

The City of Albuquerque has become the latest to adopt some variation of UBI (universal basic income).

The City’s plan is Guaranteed Income Initiative, provide $750 monthly for three years to 80 households in the International District and West Side, targeting low-income families in areas with low academic outcomes and high absenteeism.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown:

The initiative will cost $4.02 million, with just over $2 million from City of Albuquerque Marijuana Tax Revenue, following the approval of the Marijuana Equity and Community Reinvestment resolution.

• The program will focus on the International District and West Side, specifically targeting families from Whittier and Carlos Rey Elementary Schools, which have low academic performance and high chronic absenteeism. 

• The first cohort will consist of 80 households receiving $750 monthly for three years. 

• The program aims to address historic inequity and help create economic stability for struggling families, closing the wealth gap. 

• The program is being run by the City’s Office of Equity and Inclusion, in partnership with Albuquerque Public Schools. 

• Participants are required to work with the Office of Equity and Inclusion in their financial empowerment program to get financial literacy education. 

• The city will track students’ school attendance, if participants are completing their financial counseling, and have participants do regular surveys to measure the program’s effectiveness.

It will of course be interesting to see what comes of this program. Will recipients lose the money if their kids don’t attend school or if they don’t complete their financial counseling or surveys? After all, it is supposed to be “guaranteed.” Studies of these pseudo-UBI programs have found them to be harmful. 

Of course, as the Brookings Institute has noted, the BEST anti-poverty measure is the Brookings Institute’s “Success Sequence.”: