>> building a better bay area. moving forward. finding solutions. this is abc7 news. ♪ kristen: i'm kristen sze. you are watching "getting answers." we ask experts your questions every day at 3:00 p.m. to get answers for you in real time. today, what is going on with elon musk and twitter? he on the board after all. even as he pushes stunning ideas for change for the social media platforms. we will talk about whether things will change for users, and with tax day nearly here, if you are lucky enough to get a refund, how could you make the most of it with investments? is it safe? an investment expert will join

us with some strategies. another new proposal today based on the idea of universal basic income. this one aimed at helping young people in need. state senator cortez is sponsoring a bill to give $1000 checks to high school seniors, who have experienced homelessness. the senator joins us now to talk more about his big idea. good to see you. >> thank you for having me. kristen: i know i gave some of the basics. but tell us exactly what this proposal would entail -- who would get it, how much they would get, for how long, when they would receive it, and the idea behind it. >> this all started with a conversation that i had with two state professors, who do something called silicon valley index every year, to look at and disparities, poverty, things like that -- income disparities,

poverty, things like that. there was an idea of, how can we do something to alleviate student homelessness? in talking to them, we decided the best way to do that, the quickest way to do that would be to see if we could interrupt that cycle that we are experiencing right at the source, by using a guaranteed income model. we have something that federal law has created called the mckinney vento act. which means every high school in the country, including the high school districts here, have to identify homeless students, and keep them identified. obviously that's confidential information for the schools. but it's information nevertheless. they know exactly who they are, exactly who needs the help. but as they get to the end of their senior year, what we found is that a majority of those

students want to enroll, are accepted into postsecondary education, some of whom want to go into career type, other programs -- tech, other programs, but over 50% are dropping off because they cannot afford the period between the end of high school, when the mckinney vento benefits stop, one student aid -- when student aid starts later in the fall, it is too late for them. they've been in poverty too long for that to happen. kristen: the idea is to get them to that point, when hopefully money will be coming on. are you talking about getting the money for three months, $1000 a month for three months, four months, five months, something like that? >> the senate bill calls for payments to start in april, then go through august, so they would have five installments, $1000 a month, that would help

keep them afloat. hopefully in the best case scenario, help them transition into post-secondary education, where they have housing. and assist with that gap in between the time. kristen: but this money is not attached to any conditions, that they attend college or a vocational program or even have a job, right? >> right, it is aimed first and foremost at homelessness. it is difficult to work around a student population without slipping into a mindset of, what can we do in terms of student aid? what can we do to make sure they enroll in college? the reality is, we pick the student population not because we are trying to disrupt the cycle of homelessness. it seems like every time we do a point in time census, in most counties in the state, the

numbers keep rising, despite the efforts to house people and shelter people -- billions of dollars being passed down the last couple of years, about $10 billion a year. somehow those numbers keep growing. we've got to do something to get off that treadmill and start dealing with this huge percentage of the homeless population under the age of 25. in this case, more like 18. kristen: i remember doing those stories, about the stunning number of san jose students who are homeless at some point -- i think across the csu system, cal state, the biggest university system we have here, something like 11% of students have experienced homelessness -- we are talking about some 25,000 people. this money you are trying to get for them is not going to cover everybody. is this just a pilot, to get it started? >> yes, great question. we originally looked at whether or not we could focus in just on

the csu system, may be eradicate student homelessness for incoming freshmen -- but it's a big system, as you said, 23 campuses. 11% of the csu population up and state of california in 23 campuses are homeless. it is even more startling when you look at what it would take to take them out of homelessness, it is, in a sense, a better investment than leading the men -- it is the best thing to do from a humanitarian standpoint. even with a budget surplus in the state of california, it is too much. we need to prove that this works. we are willing to prove that. we've had success with other guaranteed income programs, cities like stockton have done it, the county of santa clara has done it, with foster youth. we worked with the governor last year to set up a $35 million program for foster youth and pregnant women. now we need to prove that we can

start ending homelessness for raising freshmen coming out of high school with $1000 a month over five months to get them on their feet and transitioned into a more productive life. kristen: a lot of them will incur student debt, once they start their college journey. you mentioned stockton as an example. around here in the bay area, we've had limited pilots as well, whether it is targeting moms, different population groups. but in all those, the critics of these programs the ubi program, say that it may discourage them from working, getting that check handed to them, what is your response to the? >> -- to that? >> someday, sum population that we target with income, that might be a better argument, but with homeless students -- 12th grade students -- they are out

there trying to keep warm right now, trying to keep from starving, and that is not an exaggeration. the food and security issues are tremendous as well. -- insecurity issues are tremendous as well. this is not a windfall for them. that is $1000 a month that is going to go directly to food and rent. directly into local stores and cash registers. it's going to be sustenance for them. basic sustenance. they found in stockton in that will received pilot that there was a tremendous increase in employment after they started the guaranteed income payments because it freed people up and empowered them to worry less about their basic needs and allowed them the opportunity to invest time to get a job. kristen: i think i read that this price tag is something like $85 million. is that right? where does it come from?

is the money already set aside? >> that is money that will have to come from the revised budget, in may. we have been working closely with the governor's office to make sure this is on their radar. we have been working closely with my legislative house in the senate budget committee, which i am a member of, to make sure there is money earmarked in the budget for this purpose. then we have the legislation itself, which establishes the framework for how the money will be rolled out. that's what has to happen. all those pieces need to be in place by the middle of me. -- of may -- of may. if so, we know we have a good chance of getting this signed. kristen: sounds like it is too late for this year's graduating class of seniors? when do you expect the checks might actually go out if things go according to plan? >> absent the governor really

taking over the program himself and putting something in the budget, which accelerates it, and he could do that, that would ordinarily not take effect until the first week of january 2023. the bill itself recognizes that" for that first set of payments to start in april of 2023. for legislature to accelerate something, we call it an urgency because, it automatically triggers a two thirds vote. it is very difficult and any legislature to go through two houses with a two thirds vote. we don't want to lose the effort. by trying to move too quickly. but hopefully the governor will have some ideas about how to accelerate things. kristen: senator cortez, there seems to be a lot of momentum for various programs, the latest one coming from you, involving giving high school seniors who are graduating some money, so that they can start out on the right foot. thank you so very much.

hopefully will keep us posted. >> we will keep you posted. thank you for your interest. kristen: elon musk, no longer joining the board of san francisco bay's twitter.

kristen: tesla and spacex co elon musk continues to confound the tech world. first he acquires over 9% of twitter, becoming its largest single shareholder. then he accepts an invitation to join the social media company's board. he even tweeted last week, twitter's next board meeting is going to be lit. but last night, the twitter ceo has announced musk has changed his mind. what is going on and should twitter users care?

joining me now is our next guest to discuss the latest drama on the world -- one of the world's most controversial people. >> i think that sums it up quite well. kristen: tell us what happen here, joining the board, not joining the board. >> the day after we found out elon musk had a 9.2% stake in twitter, the twitter ceo tweeted he would be joining the board, then we found out over the weekend that elon musk would no longer be joining the board. the reasons why were not necessarily disclosed. the twitter ceo said it was for the best. now people are wondering what's going on. elon musk was going to have an ama with twitter employees. employee has had mixed feelings about them having a stake in the board. the questions of people -- that people were going to ask her not going to be answered. it is still a mystery why he is not going to be on the board. kristen: he certainly had a

complicated relationship with the company. tell us about some of his latest proposals for twitter. he started off a bunch of them this weekend. >> he went on quite a twitter spree this weekend. right after we found on he had a 9% stake in twitter, he asked if people wanted an edit feature, which we found out twitter was working on anyway. but then there are other suggestions elon musk had that were a little bit out of the ordinary -- -- one of the suggestions we had was to turn the san francisco headquarters for twitter into a homeless shelter. because according to him, no one shows up anyway. he suggested that people on twitter blue, the subscription service, people paid three dollars a month to use that, he suggested they should have a blue check mark -- which verifies that they are real people. and then he suggested may be having an option to use dogecion -- doge coin for paying for

twitter blue. another suggestion he had was to not have ads on twitter blue. lots of things he said. some of those tweets, he went back and deleted. a few of them are still up. kristen: yet. he doesn't mention what would replace the revenue, if they didn't do advertising anymore. isn't that a huge chunk of the revenue? >> it is. and so, a lot of these things are things that people don't think will actually happen. and some of these tweets were odd -- one where he asked if twitter was dying. kristen: that one got my attention. and our producers' attention. is twitter dying? barack obama is number one and he's at number eight there. but this is a negative light that typically a shareholder or someone involved with a company doesn't really do to their own

company -- kind of throwing under the bus. >> right. elon musk has a tendency to tweak things that spark a lot of attention. i think some people might have been surprised that he did this and others might've thought this was very much in character. but it was kind of strange to observe immediately after the news came out, about his stake in twitter, for him to be bashing the company that he is now involved with. kristen: here's my question. if you were on the board, he certainly couldn't go around saying those things -- i wonder if that played into his ultimate decision. even just being the single largest shareholder. you also probably couldn't go around saying those things either. good you? >> -- could you? >> that would be very odd. if he had joined twitter's board, he wouldn't have been able to have more than a 14.9% stake in the company, for those two years that he was on the board. so now that he's no longer

joining the board, people are wondering, is he going to have a greater stake in the company now? is he trying to do more? that's what he didn't join the board? even as a shareholder, it is still kind of odd, for somebody to be saying anything negative about the company that they now are involved with. kristen: right. what do analysts think is his actual endgame? to eventually controlled a platform wholly, or what? >> some are speculating he will continue to have a greater stake in the company. some people think it might be the other way -- he might back out at some point. i can tell you with certainty he is unpredictable, so i think we are just going to have to see what happens. [laughter] but people are kind of quite puzzled at this moment. kristen: look, he posed the question, is twitter dying? is it? when you look at the trends,

with the users are, is the platform becoming less relevant? >> twitter doesn't have as many users as platforms like facebook and tiktok. so you could look at it and say it's not as successful as those other companies. i think dying is a strong word -- i think it's always had a different dynamic. a different audience. different use cases. it's not the empire that facebook is. but dying is not a word that i would use to describe twitter. kristen: ultimately, does any of his involvement impact the users of the platform? should users care? >> hopefully not. that is something twitter has said, that people on the board and shareholders don't necessarily determine the policies of the company -- and that is not going to change. so twitter is not going to probably change very much for the everyday user, despite his involvement. kristen: but it is musk, so you never know. >> you never know. [laughter] kristen: thank you so much. really appreciate your insight.

>> thank you for having me. kristen: you've got one more week to pile up your taxes or file your taxes. coming up next, tips

kristen: welcome back. tax day is almost here. typically it is april 15th, but this year you have a few extra days. you have until april 18th to file. a week from today. if you are lucky enough to get a refund, what should you do with it? joining us now with strategies to consider is liz young, head of investment strategy at sophia -- at sofi. thanks for your time. great to see you. >> great to be here. kristen: if you get a refund, what are the different options you might advise a client, or someone who doesn't need to spend that check immediately? >> if you are lucky enough to get a refund, and i hope many people are, you can think about it a couple different ways. a lot of times, a refund is an

infusion of cash that you have been waiting for, you have been excited to get. you can split it up into pieces. let's say you cut it into 50% in one side and the other side -- maybe use half of it for a purchase you have been waiting to make. maybe you have recently bought a home. i know a lot of people have done that. you can buy a big item for the home. the other 50% -- if you don't need to spend it -- start investing it. we have had a lot of market volatility already this year. a lot of the stuff that was really expensive -- that's how we talk about in the stock market -- some of the stuff that was really expensive to buy, the stocks, have gone down a bit this year. you get a better entry point. so think about investing that money for the long-term. then another thing i would define is when i say long-term, i am talking five years, 10 years, this is not something you put money in the market and you want to trade around in the next few weeks. you put it in there for the long term and you let it work for

you. kristen: would you advise different things for people at different ages, different life stages? >> yes. absolutely. there is a relationship between how long of a time horizon you have, that may have a lot to do with your age, with how long you are going to continue working before retirement. the longer you have, the more risk you can take. that's because over time, the market will move up and down in short-term cycles, but over the longer term, if you look at a 20 year period, the market is rarely ever done over a full 20 year period. as you shorten it, there are times when it is down. if you can leave your money in for the long term, you can take more risk. more risk, more opportunity for reward. a lot of those riskier stocks, riskier asset types, to offer you the potential for higher return, as long as you can hold it for the long term and weather

the storm that might happen in those little short-term periods. kristen: got it. can you talk a little bit about the tax implications of different types of investments, such as stocks or real estate or crypto? >> the unfortunate thing about if you make a good investment and it works out well in -- and you make a gain on it, you do have to pay taxes on that gain. you have to remember how long you held that asset. there are some different tax implications for real estate. i would encourage everyone to look at the details of that. if you have held an asset like stocks or crypto for less than a year, and you sell it for a gain, you will owe what is called short-term capital gains -- that is equal to the ordinary income tax rate that you pay. if you managed to hold that asset for longer than a year, and you make again, -- a gain, you will be subject to long-term

capital gains, which can be 15% or 20% depending on your income level. it pays to hold things for a longer-term. make sure you are looking at your accounts. if you are thinking about selling, make sure you are looking at your accounts and not selling on day 350. wait the year and get a lower tax rate. kristen: good advice. we talked about real estate a little bit. bay area real estate is so expensive -- most people cannot afford to invest by buying an extra house or any house. but crowdfunding as an idea gaining popularity, as a way in. what do we need to know about that? >> the real estate market's been really fascinating to watch and this pandemic in particular, because it caused so many people to move out of big cities, buying up these homes -- i'm sitting in manhattan right now. real estate here is taking off as well.

ur owns a primary residentident- or, peop.you can invest i other wayo get access to those investments. the only thing i would warn people about is, because we've seen such a big run up in real estate prices already, the chances of it going that much higher are getting less and less. so be careful that you are not buying something closer to the top of the market. i would be really careful about the residential real estate market for the next few months, as we see more volatility in the stock market. kristen: liz, thank you so much. don't go away. we will take a short break.

joining us on this interactive

show, "getting answers. we will be here every weekday at 3:00 on air and on livestream, answering your questions. "world news tonight" is coming up next. we will see you at 4:00. tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. the pentagon on what russia is likely now planning. and the stunning new images from rue yan tonight. what's left of a city where more than 10,000 were reportedly killed. and here in the u.s. tonight, new covid concerns. philadelphia tonight bringing back its mask mandate. what they're seeing in new york, and in 24 states with new covid cases. first tonight, the new satellite images showing an eight-mile long russian military convoy on the move. where the pentagon believes its headed. and tonight, the new russian general now in command already known as the butcher of syria. and news tonight on the staggering death toll in mariupol. the devastating new images from above. the mayor now saying well more

than 10,000 civilians killed. what president zelenskyy is saying.