Wausau City Hall. MWC file photo.
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — A local city will be one of only two in the state to join a research program focused on using income to help those just above the poverty line.
Tuesday evening the Wausau Common Council voted to authorize Mayor Katie Rosenberg to join the Guaranteed Income Research Project through the Mayors for a Guaranteed Income group. The motion also accepts a $100,000 in grant funding to start an MGI program in the city.
With the approval, Rosenberg says the next steps will be to find criteria for the project’s potential participants. “I will work likely with Community Development Director Tammy Stratz and some other folks from non-profit agencies who deal with poverty and those populations.
“And we’ll develop criteria for who can be involved in this program. Likely we’ll look at ALICE metrics so those folks that have incomes, they’re working, but they’re not making what they need to get by very well. That will be on us, we’ll be developing the program locally.”
The resolution to authorize joining the program first came to the City’s Finance Committee at the end of January. Finance Committee Chair and District 7 Alder Lisa Rasmussen says the committee approved the resolution under specific criteria for City staff.
“It is truly a research project. And I think we can assure our residents that are concerned that we’re going to make sure that people are working when they’re participating. That they’re providing that data to the research fellow so we can measure the impact. And that we are not going to infuse this plan with tax dollars to make it continue or to make it go.”
The guaranteed income research project is in effect in other cities such as Madison, Pittsburgh, and Gainesville. The research project has been formally completed in one city, where Rosenberg says researchers found two main areas of spending.
“One of the things that the researchers who are part of this project have already seen. It’s completed in Stockton, California. They found that 75% of the funds were spent on food and clothing. So if you are concerned about what it will be spent on, the researchers will be detailing every bit of it. And that’s what they’re finding right now.”
The resolution to join the research project was passed unanimously by the city council. With final approval, city staff will work to develop the full criteria for participation in the research project and begin to find a research fellow to collect data when the project begins.
The Guaranteed Income Research Program from Mayors for a Guaranteed Income began in early 2020 by former Stockton, CA Mayor Michael Tubbs. The coalition of Mayors established a center for Guaranteed Income Research with the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice in October of 2020.
Cities participating in the program receive a $100,000 grant and design a guaranteed income program to fit their needs. Currently, 34 cities have joined the research project, with more cities joining the initiative each month.
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