Vitelli proposal to study basic income security clears Committee

A proposal by Sen. Eloise Vitelli, D-Arrowsic, to establish the Committee To Study the Feasibility of Creating Basic Income Security passed out of the Legislature’s Labor and Housing Committee on Friday.

“We’ve instituted a number of programs to fight poverty over the last 50 plus years, but our poverty rate has barely budged,” said Sen. Vitelli. “I think it is time we take a good, hard look at whether what we’re doing is the most effective and efficient way to get people out of poverty, or if there’s a better way, and I think that a potential basic income policy needs to be a part of that conversation.”

The bill — LD 1324 “Resolve, To Establish the Committee To Study the Feasibility of Creating Basic Income Security” — would create the Committee To Study the Feasibility of Creating Basic Income Security to examine options to better provide basic economic security to Maine people, including through the development of a direct cash payment system. The Committee would be made up of legislators and members of the public.

The bill now goes to the Maine Senate and House for further votes.