Speakers urge Cook County to make guaranteed income permanent after pilot, advisory committee formed

Advocates at the Sept. 17 Cook County Board meeting urged commissioners to convert the county’s guaranteed income pilot into a permanent, scaled program and to identify stable revenue sources to sustain it.

"We believe that one way to begin to end poverty as we know it is by creating permanent guaranteed income programs that meet the needs of those that are most in need," said Byron Hobbs, director of organizing for Community Change, noting the county’s pilot from 2022 to 2024 and the recently formed county guaranteed income advisory committee. Hobbs said the pilot received nearly a quarter-million applicants and showed positive recipient outcomes in post-program surveys.

Community Change organizer Tania Wilson described a recent outreach campaign across majority-Black wards that gathered more than 2,000 pledge cards supporting a permanent program. Aurora Gonzales, a Northwest Side resident, told commissioners guaranteed income would allow families to invest in child care, return to full-time work and stabilize households as economic pressures and automation affect jobs.

Adjust Harvest’s director of policy and organizing, David Zolton, asked the board to prioritize budget investments in programs that address social determinants of safety, such as housing, youth jobs and violence-prevention, and to consider preserving Cook County’s guaranteed income as part of those investments.

No board vote to create or fund a permanent guaranteed income program occurred at the Sept. 17 meeting. Speakers asked the board and the advisory committee to continue planning, identify revenue streams and consider permanent program design in upcoming budget deliberations.

Advocates indicated they will work with the Guaranteed Income Advisory Committee and commissioners to propose funding sources, program design changes and legislative steps needed to restart or expand the program beyond a pilot.