Giving Compass' Take:

• In Stockton, CA, Mayor Michael Tubbs is working on a universal basic income plan to give his residents $500 a month to address the poverty problem. 

• Opinions on public assistance can be deeply polarized.  If this execution is successful, will Stockton be able to make the case to sway public opinion? 

• Read the Brookings' piece taking a deeper look into whether universal basic income is successful or not. 

Six years ago, facing housing foreclosures and a corruption investigation by the state, Stockton, Calif., became the largest city at that time in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy.

Now, the diverse, working-class community is out of bankruptcy, and the city’s 27-year-old mayor, Michael Tubbs, has a radical plan he's testing to reinvent his hometown: Give every resident $500 a month.

The idea is called universal basic income (UBI). It can be traced back to the 16th century but has only started to be tested in the 20th century -- and largely outside of the United States. Several California cities -- Stockton being the latest -- are getting in the game, thanks to financial backing from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

Mayor Tubbs’ office has partnered with the Reinvent South Stockton Coalition and the Economic Security Project -- co-chaired by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes -- to launch the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED). Starting in early 2019, 100 Stockton residents will receive $500 a month for 18 months. The goal is to document the effect of a guaranteed income on their quality of life.

Foster says that the tech community's interest in universal basic income "started with people worried about robots and the rise of automation and the impact of artificial intelligence on the workforce."

“But we realized one doesn’t need to look to the future to make a case for radically rethinking our economy and guaranteeing everyone an income floor," she says. "One needs to just look at today where you have a quarter of the American workforce on public assistance.”

Economist Ioana Marinescu of the University of Pennsylvania has researched the effects of universal basic income and said “many studies find no statistically significant effect of an unconditional cash transfer [or universal basic income] on the probability of working.”

Read the full article about earned basic income by Candice Norwood at Governing Magazine