Richmond residents like Ramos “were essentially on a fiscal cliff every single month,” said Democratic Mayor Levar Stoney, who wants to expand the program with $500,000 in his 2025 budget to “allow us to get to even more families.”
Stoney joined MGI's board in 2020 after being elected in 2016. The collaboration of primarily Democratic leaders has supported GI projects countrywide with federal monies, including from 2021's American Rescue Plan, and private donations from contributors like Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who now runs Block.
The firm said it launched 66 pilots in four years, including in red areas like Kentucky and Florida. Guaranteed income programs typically target low-income or unemployed people, unlike “universal basic income” proposals like 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang's.
In 2019, MGI founder and former Stockton mayor Michael Tubbs began a $500-a-month GI program for 125 residents, making waves before Covid. The pandemic limited the initiative's impact, but Tubbs claimed it was promising enough to inspire following attempts, which Covid and the George Floyd murder racial equity campaign helped advance.
The University of Pennsylvania's Center for Guaranteed Income Research examined a Cambridge, Massachusetts, scheme that offered single-caretaker homes $500 a month from 2021 to 2023 in February. Within a year, 40% worked full-time, compared to 28% of a control group.
Taniquewa Brewster has been working in Austin, Texas, since her 12-month GI pilot expired last October. The 38-year-old contract laborer and single mother of five became a real-estate leasing agent and notary months before losing her $1,000 monthly stipend. She also began doula training.
But with more than 150 guaranteed or universal basic income pilots in the U.S., Stanford University estimates, opponents may struggle to stop the momentum. A February MGI study found that over 60% of Americans favored a national guaranteed income of $500 to $1,000 a month for those earning less than their community's median.
More election tests lie ahead. Stoney declared his 2025 gubernatorial run in Virginia, a battleground state that elected Republican Glenn Youngkin in 2021.
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