Letter: Where are answers on guaranteed income?

I'm baffled about the Cook County Guaranteed Income program.

Applicants for the program must have household income of no more than 250% of the federal poverty level, which is roughly $49,200 for an average-sized household of 2.5 people. The randomly selected 3,250 applicants will receive $500 per month for two years. Federal tax dollars will fund the estimated $42 million cost per year.

What is the goal? To reduce income inequality? If so, by how much? What level of inequality is considered to be acceptable? We aren't told.

Is the goal to fight poverty? Fighting poverty isn't the same thing as fighting income inequality.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau for Cook County, the average household has 2.5 people, and half of the households have income below $67,800. So, probably about one fourth of the households have income below 250% of the federal poverty level. There are 2 million households in Cook County, so about 500,000 households could apply for the program. Why limit the program to less than one percent of the households? We aren't told.

Scaling up the program to cover all eligible households would cost almost two hundred times more, or $8 billion. By comparison, the entire Cook County budget is $8.1 billion. Would the Cook County Board want to increase taxes to cover the additional $8 billion? We aren't told.

The University of Chicago has been chosen to study the effects of the program, but why bother when Board President Toni Preckwinkle says the program will be made permanent? We aren't told.

Isn't it reasonable for us to get answers to these questions?

Steve Berthene

St. Charles