ITSA Newsletter: March 2025

Here’s the latest and biggest Basic Income news:

‣ Founder of Stack Exchange Commits $50 Million to Rural Basic Income Pilots

‣ Guaranteed Basic Income Act Introduced in Tennessee for $250/mo

‣ List of States With Basic Income Pilot Ban Legislation Continues to Grow

‣ Musk and Trump Consider Delivering ‘DOGE Dividend’ Checks to Taxpayers

‣ First Nation Peoples in Canada May Soon Start Getting Universal Basic Income

‣ $79 Trillion Has Been Redistributed From the Bottom 90% to the Top 1% Since 1975

ITSA Update:

As work on Bootstraps, Comingle, and UBIdata continues, and planning for nationwide events later this year continues too, I wanted to take a moment to share with you something that I think you’ll find valuable to know.

The Income To Support All Foundation is a public charity. To be a public charity and stay a public charity, a third of all our donations needs to come from the public over a 5-year span. Public funding is government grants, grants from other charities, and donations from small donors where that’s defined as less than 2% of total revenue over 5 years.

It’s called the “public support test” and it’s important to know about because everyone should know that any donation at all, no matter how small and insignificant it may feel, is important to all public charities. If you support what a charity is doing, know that even $10 a month, besides supporting their mission, helps them stay a charity.

In this day and age of extreme inequality where the working class is getting squeezed more and more as the costs of living rise, it really means a lot to me that one of our monthly donors not only is a monthly donor, but even has their employer deduct their donation straight from their paycheck to send to us by their employer’s charitable arm.

It feels very UBI-like for someone to essentially say to their employer, “I may have earned this $20 and could definitely use it, but don’t give it to me. Give it to ITSA Foundation.”

Want to know if your employer does donations to 501c3 nonprofits too? Check this link to see. It’s possible that a $50 donation from you could end up being a $100 donation to us after a match from your employer.

If you support our work, please consider becoming a monthly donor today. Your donation of any size truly matters.

Founder of Stack Exchange Commits $50 Million to Rural Basic Income Pilots [link]

• In a blog post titled, “The Road Not Taken is Guaranteed Minimum Income”, Jeff Atwood announced that he’s putting $50M (half of his family’s wealth) into rural basic income pilots in West Virginia and North Carolina.

• The pilots will be administered by GiveDirectly and studied by OpenResearch and take place in three different counties.

• Around 1,800 people will receive $1,500 a month for 16 months.

Guaranteed Basic Income Act Introduced in Tennessee for $250/mo [link]

• A bill is working its way through the Tennessee General Assembly titled the “Guaranteed Basic Income Act” or “Protection Against Automation Act”.

• If passed into law, it would provide a basic income of $250 a month to eligible full-time residents of TN over age 18. People would need to reapply each year.

• Payments would begin in 2026.

List of States With Basic Income Pilot Ban Legislation Continues to Grow [link]

• Montana, Kansas, and Florida join the growing list of states looking to ban basic income programs.

• States with successfully passed bans: Idaho, Iowa, Arkansas, and South Dakota.

• States that are trying to pass bans: Montana, Kansas, Florida, and Texas.

• States with ban fails: Mississippi, Tennessee, West Virginia, Arizona, and Wisconsin.

Musk and Trump Consider Delivering ‘DOGE Dividend’ Checks to Taxpayers [link]

• The Department of Government Efficiency, with the support of Musk and Trump, may send out cash payments to taxpayers in 2026 based on government cuts.

• The amount of the payments would be calculated to distribute 20% of everything DOGE cuts this year, and would go to everyone who owes any amount of tax.

• Based on those details, the poorest 40% of the country would get nothing, and the amount might be a couple hundred dollars per household, not individual.

First Nation Peoples in Canada May Soon Start Getting Universal Basic Income [link]

• First Nations signed treaties in 1850 that included an augmentation clause where annual payments should have increased as land wealth increased.

• In 1874, those payments were capped at $4 per year per person in clear violation of the Robinson treaties.

• Canada’s highest court has determined that Canada must share 175 years of unshared wealth, which according to J. Stiglitz, could approach C$126 billion.

$79 Trillion Has Been Redistributed From the Bottom 90% to the Top 1% Since 1975 [link]

• Five years ago, RAND determined that $50 trillion had gone to the top 1% at the expense of the bottom 90%. Five years later, it’s now $79 trillion.

• In 2023 alone, $3.9 trillion was redistributed from the bottom 90% to the top 1%.

• If redistributed back as UBI, that would mean a UBI of around $1,500 a month.

• BONUS FACT: Half of all consumer spending is now done by only the top 10%.

Thank you for being a subscriber to the ITSA Newsletter! If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and family and encourage them to subscribe too.

Scott Santens

Founder & CEO, ITSA Foundation