Judge Orders City of St. Louis to Stop Doling Out Guaranteed Basic Income Payments

The courts are finally becoming useful for once

St. Louis circuit court Joseph Whyte ordered the City of St. Louis to cease its guaranteed basic income program.

St. Louis Comptroller Darlene Green, Treasurer Adam Layne and Mayor Tishaura Jones were instructed to immediately halt making any deposits to financial institutions for financing the project, save for administrative costs, and halt all payments to private individuals under the initiative .

Recently, Judge Whyte granted a temporary order to stop the payments as part of a lawsuit filed by Greg Tumlin, a counselor, and Fred Hale, the former chairman of the St. Louis chapter of the Republican party.

“Insufficient evidence and argument was presented from which the court can find the necessary probability of success on the merits, threat of irreparable harm, the balance between harm and injury, and the public interest regarding these funds,” Whyte wrote in a 13-page order.

Bevis Schock, an attorney who provided legal representation to the taxpayers, said professors from Washington University’s Brown School of Social Work gave testimony during the hearing in addition two recipients and Judge Whyte overlooked the majority of the testimony when he wrote the order.

“Interestingly, the professor has a contract with the city to study this,” Schock said in an interview with The Center Square. “So he was a witness and we exposed that bias. Of course he’s in favor of it. He’s paid to study it.”

Judge Whyte is letting donations from private individuals to the city to bankroll the program to continue being used. Roughly 500 households were getting $500 monthly payments from the federal pandemic American Rescue Plan Act funding.

“The city will follow the guidelines set forth by the court's ruling and we are working with our partner organization to continue this program using private dollars while this case continues in court,” Jones declared in a statement. “We remain committed to arguing our case on the merits, as we believe that this program serves a public good.”

Whyte highlighted in his order that the injunction is only based on the question of the program infringing on the Missouri Constitution and the St. Louis City Charter.

“As noble as Ordinance No. 71591’s cause may be, it’s not what the court is being asked to decide,” Whyte proclaimed in his order. “The court is only being asked to decide the constitutionality and legality of the ordinance.”

Schock stressed that the lawsuit is concentrated on whether the payments were in violation of the law.

“Gratuitous payments to private individuals are not allowed and there’s good reasons for that,” Schock stated. “The public eye tends to be insufficiently close on municipal government and a lot of hanky panky goes on. Otherwise, we could have mayors taking their brother-in-law to dinner and claiming it as a business expense. Or maybe the mayor decides to pay his mortgage for him. … We’re agnostic on the policy issue. I have my own opinion on the policy. But I’m in favor of charity.”

Good on this judge issuing an order to halt an unsustainable transfer program. UBI and similar schemes are merely re-arranging the chairs on the Titanic of fiscal collapse that’s befalling all levels of government across the US. 

For once, can politicians start lowering taxes, spending, and the regulatory load? These factors have kept the American economy stagnant. More free market mechanisms, less interventionism, will keep people prosperous.