But, without the tranche of federal cash to rely on, Lightfoot has no plans to provide new city funding to extend the program in her 2023 budget, budget director Susie Park said on the first day of the city’s annual budget hearings.

Park left the door slightly open to extending the program later, but said the only money included in the 2023 budget is to keep the checks flowing until July. After the first year concludes, a nine-month evaluation of its effectiveness will be conducted before the city will decide if it’s a worthy project.

Park’s comments came on the first day Cook County’s similar $42 million program, which will provide $500 monthly checks to 3,250 residents for two years, began accepting applications. 

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has already pledged to make the program permanent after the initial two-year run and defended the decision in a meeting with Crain’s editorial staff this afternoon. 

The county has a partnership with the University of Chicago to evaluate the effectiveness of the program and could make tweaks in future funding rounds. Preckwinkle hopes the federal government will eventually step in to fund a universal basic income, but the county will do so in the interim.

“Historically, the cities and counties and states have been sources of innovation and new programs and ideas about how to best govern people,” Preckwinkle said. “When you build enough momentum for an idea, often the federal government adopts it, and I hope frankly that the federal government will decide that this is an idea that is worth pursuing.”