Texas Justices Block Harris County’s Low-Income Handouts

Texas’s Harris County, home to nearly 5 million people, can’t give $20.5 million to low-income residents under a no-strings-attached income program opposed by state Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), the state Supreme Court said Friday.

In a preliminary decision that briefly touches on the program’s lawfulness, the justices said they’re “skeptical” of the county’s argument that it serves a genuine public purpose. The program would have given $500 monthly payments to 1,928 county residents for 18 months.

Purchases from the monthly payments won’t be monitored, meaning it is “unlikely the county will know how recipients spend the money and whether any legitimate public purpose was achieved thereby,” the unanimous opinion said. The program prohibits using the money for terrorism, fraud, or other nefarious activities, but the court said it was “given no indication that the county intends to, or even could, meaningfully enforce these restrictions.”

The court also cast doubt on the county’s argument that the payments are allowed because they’ll spur economic development. If that’s true, the court said, nearly any government payout could overcome a ban against gratuitous payments to individuals.

The case now returns to an appeals court to consider a temporary injunction Paxton sought to stop the payouts. The appeals court previously declined to stop the payouts pending an injunction ruling, triggering Paxton’s appeal to the Supreme Court; the high court then issued an administrative stay blocking the payouts pending Friday’s ruling.

The case is In re: The State of Texas, Tex., No. 24-0325, 6/14/24.