Texas is rich, and Texans are hard-working. So every Texan should benefit from the bounty of our great state.
Look, if Alaska can do it (“I can see UBI from my house!”), then, by God, Texas can do it—in fact, I firmly believe that anything any other state can do, Texas can do better.
A modified budget-neutral basic income plan like those championed even by some conservatives, coupled with a non-compulsory jobs program, would create a compassionate, market-linked revolution in the way Texans work, live, and take care of each other.
How would it work?
The Texas Trust
At the heart of this concept is the creation of the world’s smartest and largest sovereign wealth fund: The Texas Trust. Seeded by the State’s existing Rainy Day Fund and modeled on the existing Permanent University Fund, the Trust will be grown through private-sector investments, new revenue, and government cost savings. The goal of the trust would be to (1) provide a dignified minimum standard of living for the neediest, (2) create jobs, training, and education for young and out-of-work Texans, and (3) recapture some of the wealth created by Texas workers and Texas resources, and put it to work for regular Texans.
Texas Dividends
Ultimately, as the Trust grows and inefficient welfare systems are phased out, every lawful citizen of Texas who can demonstrate need would be entitled to modest periodic payments in an amount set by the Legislature, no strings attached. This payment would be enough to cover the basics due to Texans: modest housing, food, and clothing.
It wouldn’t be fancy, but it would mean that we take care of our own—and, in particular, that we take care of children, the elderly, and the disabled. It would also mean that much of what was once provided by the state will be provided by the open market in a competitive economy.
The Texas Corps
Texans who work to improve our State through a new “Texas Corps” would be entitled to higher monthly payments from the Trust.
Texas Corps members can work for the state directly (for example, improving parks and wildlife habitat for the Texas Parks & Wildlife) or indirectly (seconded to approved state contractors, like those who build infrastructure for the TxDOT). Or, they can work for approved nonprofits who engage directly in work that contributes to the public good.
Private businesses and nonprofits would be given incentives to hire Texas Corps members, so long as they provide training and basic benefits. And, state school graduates who spend enough time in Texas Corps jobs would have 100% of their tuition debts paid by the Trust and the Permanent University Fund.
What’s the catch?
Trust dividends would ultimately replace most existing state-provided welfare and social support programs (including unemployment), giving needy Texans the freedom to put their dividends towards the things that they prioritize, whether that be healthcare, education, savings, or otherwise. But it would be an essential element of the plan that basic social supports cannot be taken away until dividend payments are high enough to cover the basics, and the dividends would be indexed to those basics so that they rise and fall in concert.
How would we pay for it?
Seed Funds and Investments
The Trust would not come into being overnight. It would need to be planted, cared for, and grown. The seed of the Trust would come in the form of the Rainy Day Fund, already one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world (but certainly not large enough to serve the functions envisioned for the Trust). Part of the nascent Trust, capitalized with the money from the former Rainy Day Fund, would be invested in the private sector with an emphasis on Texas energy, tech, agriculture, and other major job-producing sectors in the state.
Re-Directed Revenue
Big businesses in Texas are booming…especially the extractive industries. There’s nothing wrong with that, in itself—but they should be asked to give back. Good old Teddy Roosevelt put it best when he said:
“Our aim is not to do away with corporations…We are not hostile to them; we are merely determined that they shall be so handled as to subserve the public good. We draw the line against misconduct, not against wealth.”
In that same spirit, we should require the extractive industries to contribute to the Trust, so that all Texans can benefit from the utilization of the resources that lie beneath their feet. That we don’t share the wealth in the way that Alaska or some oil-rich countries do is a discredit to our great state.
New Revenue
The same principle applies to the tobacco, alcohol, and gambling industries, whose profits come with certain costs to society. Additional revenue from taxes on legalized marijuana would go towards the Trust; and modest increases in taxes on alcohol, tobacco, gambling and other sectors with negative social side effects would also help fill the Trust’s coffers.
Budget Savings
Reducing the state budget would help keep things balanced as well. Prisons could be closed following the release of nonviolent offenders whose only crimes arise out of cannabis commerce prior to legalization. Current state welfare programs (such as they are) would be merged into the Trust, as would the unemployment system. The vast bureaucratic machinery associated with those programs could be phased out, resulting in additional savings to the state.
Admittedly, this is a big dream, and it won’t happen overnight. But it’s not a pipe dream: it is realistic and entirely do-able, if we work together, and if we actually start talking about it, refining and testing the concept, in the places that matter.