Former Andrew Yang Staffer, Evan Low, Introduces Universal Basic Income Assembly Bill In California
Democrat Evan Low, former National Campaign Co-Chair of Andrew Yang‘s campaign and a member of the California State Assembly representing the 28th Assembly District, recently introduced Assembly Bill 2712- California Universal Basic Income (UBI) to continue the work of the former presidential candidate.
Low revealed the proposal on Twitter, along with a link to his plan. Much like Yang’s proposal, the bill proposes to fund the UBI with a value-added tax (VAT) of 10 percent. The charge applies to all goods and services, with the exception of medicine, medicinal supplies and equipment, and educational materials such as textbooks and fees for food, groceries, education, and clothing.
The CalUBI program applies to California residents over the age of 18, although it excludes individuals under the Medi-Cal, CalFresh, County Medical Services, and CalWORKs programs, as well as those on Unemployment Insurance.
“Thank you for introducing this. It’s up to Californians to push our #HumanityFirst message,” one supporter wrote.
“Exciting things…hopefully it will make it through unscathed,” tweeted another.
Others offered some criticism. Investigative Reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation Andrew Kerr claimed that the proposal would cost approximately $295 billion per year, which he says would cause California’s proposed $222.2 billion 2020-2021 budget to “more than double.”
I founded the @UBIcaucus #UBIcaucus please go check out the other 32 great candidates that have signed a pledge to vote in favor UBI in 2021, if elected.@scottsantens and @kp_colussi Aren’t running for office, but they have been a great supporters of the #UBI movement as well! pic.twitter.com/GY6ESPSvfH
— Ryan Blevins ? ? (@Blevins2020) February 11, 2020
With Yang out of the race, his supporters are focusing on pro-UBI congressional candidates. According to UBI advocate and Yang supporter Scott Santens, the movement could push a UBI candidate into Congress as early as this year. He claims that pushing a “loud voice” candidate akin to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would be ideal.
“We could have that in 2020, or we could have that now, we could have that in a couple years from now,” he said in a conversation with actor and Yang supporter Paget Kagy, noting that government UBI advocates would help a Yang 2024 run.
Yang recently teased a 2024 run on Twitter by posting a photo of a “Yang 2024” sticker and cryptically tweeted “we’ll be back” in response to a Washington Post article about his loyal supporters.
“#StillVotingYang trended on Twitter in recent days as the Yang Gang prepared to rebrand for the long haul (‘Truckers for UBI’) and buzzed about a ‘summer camp’ where they can plan for Yang 2024,” the article reads.
As of now, Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard has expressed support for UBI, and Republican presidential candidate Zoltan Istvan has a UBI plan as a core pillar of his campaign. However, Zoltan proposes the pay for his program by monetizing unused federal lands as opposed to implementing a VAT.
