The mayor of Rutledge, a borough of less than 1,000 people, asked the Delaware County Council to consider creating a universal basic income measure for the 57,000 or so residents estimated to be living below the poverty line. 

Mayor Gamal Sherif, a Democrat who won election in 2021, made his request to the five-member county council last week. It comes less than three months after the council, all Democrats, took heat from citizens fuming over a 24 percent tax increase for 2025 — and a total increase of 29 percent since 2023. 

In making his pitch to council, Mayor Sherif began by lauding the recent work of the council including the work of the countywide health department — a decision Republicans have criticized as redundant and that has added to the need for tax hikes.

“I want to thank the council for the recent work that was done to adjust the taxes. It’s an investment in the present; it’s an investment in the future, and generations to come. That’s the kind of bold leadership that we need and it’s not something I would apologize for,” Sherif said.

“When it comes to the ‘social good’ there’s also the element of ‘what are some of our people experiencing in Delaware County?’ 58,000 people in Delaware County are below the poverty line. And all these programs that I’m seeing [from the county] are designed to help all kinds of people extricate themselves from the violence of poverty. 

“I would like to invite the council to consider ‘Counties for Guaranteed Income.’ I’m a member of ‘Mayors for Guaranteed Income’ and I believe if we provide small incentives for people on a monthly basis, they can help take care of their families. They can help get better health care.”

Because Sherif was speaking during the public comment portion of the meeting, no member of council responded directly to Sherif’s invitation, and a request for comment to the council on his remarks was not returned.

For his part, Sherif did not propose any monthly stipend amount at the meeting, and when contacted by email, he said it was premature to identify a specific cost.

Theoretically, if the county provided a $330 monthly stipend to all of the 57,000 persons estimated by Gamil to be living below the poverty line, it would require real estate taxes to be doubled. But that example illustrates even a modest stipend would create enormous questions of long-term funding.

(The hypothetical above assumes none of the 57,000 are minors, which would certainly not be the case. Yet it’s also likely that certain assumptions would shift if such a stipend were ever implemented. For example, it’s likely persons from neighboring counties would move to Delaware County to take advantage of the benefit, which could also twist foundational assumptions.)

Gamil said right now his invitation to learn more is exactly that.

“MGI recommends starting with research and then a community pilot so that the public can learn more about the literal costs and benefits of income security. A pilot would help the county, and eventually the state of Pennsylvania, learn about and improve income security.

“First, I’m looking for a County commitment to learn more about income security and how it can improve peoples’ lives while also reducing the costs associated with poverty. Mayors for Guaranteed Income (MGI), and their sister organization Counties for Guaranteed Income, can help counties identify and support partnerships dedicated to this type of research, starting with University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Guaranteed Income Research.”

One local Republican slammed the idea.

“We are already feeling the squeeze after the Democrat County Council hit us with a 24 percent tax hike. Now we’ve got a Democratic mayor floating the idea of a county-funded Universal Basic Income for every resident, all at a time we are just trying to make ends meet. This isn’t some laboratory to test utopian political ideas in, it’s Delaware County,” said Dave Galluch, an executive committee member for the Delaware County GOP.

“People here don’t want government checks — they want good-paying jobs that help them stand on their own with dignity. They want real opportunities, not ideas that sound great in an Ivy League classroom funded by even higher taxes. Instead of cooking up new ways to spend taxpayer money, County Council should focus on creating an environment where businesses can grow, jobs can thrive, and families can build a future without depending on the government,” Galluch concluded.

Gamil’s estimation of the number of people living below the poverty line in the county is disputed, but only slightly.

According to the website welfareinfo.org, the poverty rate in Delaware County is 9.7 percent, estimated at 53,585 of 553,271 persons. The same website also says the county’s poverty rate is lower than the state and national averages.

Supporters of universal basic income programs have cheered a pilot program in Los Angeles that provided about 3,000 people with a monthly stipend of $1,000. Supporters of the program said UBI recipients reported less stress about paying for things like housing and groceries.

But even some of those supporters acknowledge that the idea isn’t scalable.

Meanwhile, Delaware County’s 24 percent tax hike last year seems certain to dominate this year’s campaign for the two seats on county council up for grabs. Councilman Richard Womack is presumed to be running for re-election, and Councilman Kevin Madden is term limited out, leaving his seat open.

When casting the lone vote against the tax hike last November, Womack promised to run a budget “task force” to either find savings or to at least pump the brakes on certain categories of spending.

But as a Broad + Liberty budgetary analysis last month explained, the county is likely to still have a structural deficit of $34 million, resulting in another significant another tax hike.

(Editor’s note: Previous reports by Broad + Liberty referred to Delaware County’s 2025 tax hike as being 23 percent. According to the 2025 budget, the revenue shift between 2024 and 2025 will be 23.7 percent, or 24 percent rounded up. This report uses the 24 percent figure, and Broad + Liberty will use that figure going forward.)

Todd Shepherd is Broad + Liberty’s chief investigative reporter. Send him tips at tshepherd@broadandliberty.com, or use his encrypted email at shepherdreports@protonmail.com. @shepherdreports