Wisconsin legislator aims to get rid of state's 'tampon tax'

Viagra, the popular blue pills to combat erectile dysfunction, are sold tax-free in Wisconsin.

But anyone buying feminine hygiene products must pay state sales tax.

Wisconsin Rep. Melissa Sargent thinks that's unfair.

"There is no other example of a product where men are taxed for something women are not taxed for. In this case, women are being penalized simply on the basis of being a woman," said Sargent, a Madison Democrat. "It's not a choice to be a person who menstruates."

Sargent is trying to repeal the state sales tax on tampons, pads and sanitary napkins and she's hoping to get it done through the budget bill now under consideration.

With every female in the state affected at some time in their lives — roughly for four decades — the costs add up. U.S. sales of feminine hygiene products are estimated at more than $3 billion this year. The Wisconsin Fiscal Bureau pegs the amount of sales taxes collected in the state on those items at $2.7 million annually.

Sales taxes are collected on many things in Wisconsin, but items deemed necessary such as most groceries, medicine and home heating oil are exempt. That's why prescription medicines, such as Viagra, are not taxed. Neither are birth control pills or cholesterol medicine.

Wisconsin is part of a growing effort across the country to repeal "tampon taxes," which some call a penalty against women.

Only eight of the 45 states that collect sales taxes exempt menstrual products. Three of those states — Illinois, New York and Connecticut — decided last year to stop collecting sales taxes on feminine hygiene items, joining New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.

An attempt to exempt feminine hygiene products in California last year was vetoed by the governor who worried that the loss of $20 million in sales taxes would hurt the state economy.

That lawmakers and politicians are even talking about it, and the media are covering it, shows how much has changed. Until recently, people simply didn't talk about periods. Period.

"Menstruation itself is sort of stigmatized," said Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, a New York lawyer and menstrual policy advocate. "It's something people are embarrassed about. But there's been a change over the last two years when we started talking about these policies."

The cost of menstruation can range from $70 to $120 annually per person. In Milwaukee County, the sales tax rate of 5.6% would cost the average woman $3.92 to $6.72 per year.

But Weiss-Wolf noted money spent on tampons and pads represents a larger percentage of a poor person's income.

"That presupposes someone can go to Costco and buy a six-month supply (more cheaply) versus someone living paycheck to paycheck who has to go to a 7-Eleven store and pay almost twice as much," said Weiss-Wolf, whose book "Periods Gone Public" will be published this fall.

FoodShare benefits for low-income people in Wisconsin cannot be used to buy menstrual products. And while food pantries sometimes stock soap or toilet paper, feminine hygiene items are rarely available, said Sargent.

In a YouTube interview last year, former President Barack Obama suggested feminine hygiene products are taxed because women were not part of the decision-making process.

"I don't think there was some campaign that menstrual products have sales taxes. But it reflects what happens when you don't have someone at the table advocating for you," Weiss-Wolf said.

Wisconsin instituted its sales tax on Feb. 1, 1962, when most goods and services were taxed at 3%. A check of the Wisconsin Blue Book shows the number of women serving in the Senate and Assembly at that time: zero.

Fred Risser was in the Assembly when the sales tax was approved by a Republican-controlled Legislature. Risser, a Madison Democrat who now serves in the Senate, vividly recalls the sales tax debate.

Initially, lawmakers planned a selective sales tax, identifying goods and services that would be taxed before deciding to approve a general sales tax, meaning everything was taxed except things that were exempt, recalled Risser, who was chairman of the Assembly Joint Finance Committee at the time. Some wanted food exempt while others did not, and eventually a compromise was reached with food eaten in restaurants taxed while food purchased for personal consumption at home was not. But not everything bought at grocery stores was exempt — tobacco, alcohol, some snacks and candy are taxed while anything made with dairy products or wheat is tax-free.

"There hasn't been a session in the Legislature when there hasn't been serious efforts to exempt one thing or another. You can come up with a justification for exempting just about everything," said Risser, who is against a sales tax because he believes it's a burden on poor people.

Anyone reading through the list of taxed and tax-exempt goods would likely shake their head at some of the items. Some could be seen as obvious — toilet paper, soda pop, ashtrays, facial tissues and garden implements are taxed. Bread, milk, cereal, meat and margarine are not.

But while nuts and honey are not taxed, honey-roasted nuts are. Yogurt and raisins are exempt, but yogurt-flavored raisins are not.

In 2015, Weiss-Wolf began writing articles about tampon taxes in a variety of national publications, worked to get a change.org petition started and helped legislators in several states put together proposals to repeal taxes on the products.

This year, there are proposals to eliminate tampon taxes in 15 states. Sargent sponsored a bill last year to exempt feminine hygiene products from sales taxes. But the bill didn't advance before the end of the session. This year, she's talking to her colleagues to build bipartisan support. Among them is Adam Neylon (R-Pewaukee), a co-sponsor of Sargent's bill last year.

Neylon and Sargent are working on a budget amendment to add feminine hygiene products to the sales tax exemption list. Neylon said if the Joint Finance Committee balks at including feminine products in the budget, a separate bill using Sargent's legislation language from last year can be reintroduced.

"It's not an item that people can do without or not purchase. Only one gender has to pay the sales tax," said Neylon.