Panel pitches plan to pay poor $1,000 a month

Each month, 1,000 struggling Chicagoans would get $1,000, no strings attached, to help break the cycle of poverty, under a trail-blazing pilot program proposed Thursday by a mayoral task force.

Days after choosing political retirement over the uphill battle for a third term, Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked retiring Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th), who has championed the cause of income inequality, to chair a task force to consider universal basic income in Chicago.

On Thursday, that task force, co-chaired by SEIU Local 1 President Tom Balanoff and Celena Roldan, CEO of the American Red Cross of Chicago & Northern Illinois, proposed a path forward.

Their 50-page report proposes that Chicago forge ahead by giving 1,000 people $1,000-a-month, which adds up to $12 million a year, to be bankrolled by an unspecified mix of city funds and philanthropic dollars.

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