Place: Stockton / Mayor Michael Tubbs
Universal Basic Income

The youngest mayor in America is set to experiment with a universal basic income

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

The youngest mayor in America is set to experiment with a universal basic income

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 20: Film subject Michael Tubbs attends the 'True Son' Premiere - 2014 Tribeca Film Festival at Chelsea Bow Tie Cinemas on April 20, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival)

Stockton, CA Mayor Michael Tubbs wants to make a difference.

Stockton, California, is planning on becoming the first American testing ground for a basic income. The plan is to begin giving potentially 100 families $500 a month, “no strings attached.” The concept of universal basic income has been around for a long time and the hope is that in providing everyone a level of income, the stigma surrounding assistance programs like welfare will diminish, ameliorating some of the more destructive social inequalities that come in hand with income inequality.


STOCKTON, CA - APRIL 29: A sign is posted in a deserted section of downtown Stockton April 29, 2008 in Stockton, California.

As the nation continues to see widespread home loan foreclosures, Stockton, California led the nation with the highest foreclosure rate. One out of every 30 homes in Stockton is in foreclosure, close to seven times the national average for a metro area in the U.S. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) In more modern times, Milton Friedman, darling of laissez-faire economics, embraced the idea of negative income taxes that put cash in the hands of the poorest people. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. advocated “the guaranteed income.”

Dr. King’s legacy has currency in Stockton, which is now led by a history-making mayor, Michael Tubbs. At 27, he is the youngest mayor of a sizable American city, and the first African-American to hold the job here.

Stockton is an area in the central valley of California, devastated by the last decade of American economics. In 2007, Stockton led all major U.S. cities in foreclosures—one in every 27 Stockton homes were foreclosed on (it was supplanted by Detroit later that year). Stockton once again gained that dreaded No. 1 spot in 2008, only to move into second place behind Las Vegas in 2009. By 2012 Stockton filed for bankruptcy, and by 2016, Michael Tubbs became the first black mayor of Stockton, and the youngest at age 26. He’s been promoting his hopes and reasons for wanting the basic income project to be enacted since coming into office. Here he is explaining it to Politico in April.


STOCKTON, CA - JUNE 27: Graffiti is seen on the side of a vacant building on June 27, 2012 in Stockton, California. Members of the Stockton city council voted 6-1 on Tuesday to adopt a spending plan for operating under Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection following failed talks with bondholders and labor unions failed. The move will make Stockton the biggest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy protection from creditors. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

“So much of the investment strategy in the past was, ‘Let’s create this image of the city,’ while really neglecting investing in people,” Tubbs told me in a conversation for POLITICO’s Off Message podcast.

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“There’s this interesting conversation we’ve been having about the value of work,” Tubbs said. “Work does have some value and some dignity, but I don’t think working 14 hours and not being able to pay your bills, or working two jobs and not being able—there’s nothing inherently dignified about that.”

Hear, hear. The basic income plan he’s supporting is funded through the Economic Security Project, which the New York Times says is an advocacy group for basic income. The Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED) began with $1 million from the Economic Security Project. Now, the most important step forward is figuring out who to give the money to in starting this experiment.

At a meeting at City Hall, the SEED project manager Lori Ospina urged that the program be designed to yield valid scientific data. That involves choosing participants on the basis of narrow demographic criteria — perhaps their age, their race, their income.

But that approach could expose the city to charges that the program is not inclusive enough. “The trolls I’ve been dealing with on social media and in real life have very racialized views of how this is going to work,” Mr. Tubbs said. “As the first black mayor of this city, it would be very dangerous if the only people to get this were black.”

Tubbs says that there needs to be a change in “the narrative” of who is “deserving” of the money. This is 100 percent true, as the racist concept of the African-American “welfare queen” is still deeply embedded in the racist American story. Most people who need some assistance do not want to stay on assistance. They want some help covering the rising costs that our economy’s stagnant wage growth does not satisfy.

Good luck, Mayor Tubbs. We will be watching, hoping, and some of us even praying.