Senate approves legislation to exempt diapers, tampons and other feminine products from state sales taxes

The state Senate approves legislation that would exempt diapers, tampons and other feminine hygiene products from the state’s 4.45 percent sales tax. Slidell Senator Sharon Hewitt voted against it because she says the savings for families would not be significant.

“For women using feminine hygiene products, 27-cents a month is what they would save if they were sales tax exempt and for families with children in diapers, they would save 65-cents a week,” said Hewitt.

But, the bill’s author, New Orleans Senator JP Morrell, says the savings help families who are required to send diapers with their child to daycare in order for a parent to maintain employment.

“If you have a working parent who can’t afford diapers, so she has to stay home her child, how does that costs us, more than 67-cents,” said Morrell.

The tax break would cost the state 10-million dollars annually, which is why a constitutional amendment to exempt diapers, tampons, and other feminine hygiene products from Louisiana’s sales tax failed to gain enough votes.

But the Senate reversed course and voted for the proposal, when Morrell changed the wording of his legislation so that it would not be an amendment in the state constitution, but just put into the state law.

The measure still needs House approval.

The state currently exempts sales taxes on food for home consumption, utilities, and prescription drugs.