Should Kentucky tax menstrual pads and tampons? Lawmakers want to change law

FRANKFORT − Two Kentucky state representatives have proposed dueling measures that would eliminate the sales tax on period products like tampons and pads.

Rep. Kim Banta, R-Fort Mitchell, filed House Bill 64 on the first day of the legislative session. The measure would remove the sales tax on the purchase of menstrual products, defined as tampons, panty liners, menstrual cups, pads, period panties and other similar products.

On Thursday, Rep. Lisa Willner, D-Louisville, held a press conference to advocate for her bill, which goes further than Banta's. House Bill 148 would remove the sales tax on period products as well as mandate that at least half of all middle and high school bathrooms accessible to females have free period products available for students.

“Period poverty,” or the lack of access to needed menstrual products, prevents many students from performing their best at school, Willner said. Lack of access to period products can cause them to stay home or worry about menstruation instead of focusing on studies, Willner said.

Willner sponsored a similar bill last year that failed to make it out of committee.

Students from across the state have contacted her to express support for the measure, Willner said. Rosie Katz of Lexington’s Henry Clay High School helped Willner with the process of drafting this year's version of the bill.

Katz was adamant the bill include a provision that at least half of bathrooms have access to the products so that students do not have to go to their teachers for the products, Willner said.

Her bill would require a $2 million annual appropriation to fund the placement of the products for schools.

Advocates at the press conference said that a lack of period products can negatively impact students’ mental health and educational performance.

One in four students experienced period poverty in 2021, said Tamarra Wieder, Kentucky state director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates.

"Without period products, the students are more likely to miss school," Wieder said.

“When access to these essential, necessary, not optional products is uncertain, the burden of managing normal bodily functions can be distressing, and anxiety producing,” said Laurie Grimes, a pediatric psychologist and the legislative agent for the Kentucky Psychological Association.

A separate proposal, Senate Bill 38 sponsored by Democrat Denise Harper Angel of Louisville, would require schools to provide free period products to students in grades four through 12. That bill puts the responsibility for providing the products on local boards of education and does not include a state budget appropriation.

Twenty-four states and Washington, D.C., have exempted period products from taxation, and another five states do not charge state sales taxes, according to the Alliance for Period Supplies, which advocates for removing the sales taxes.

In the fall, Texas enacted a law ending a tax on period products as well as other gender-specific products like breastfeeding devices and maternity clothes.

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Willner said she is not certain whether her bill can pass in the Republican-controlled legislature but that she hopes this year’s version will garner more votes than the bill she sponsored last year did.

"There have been some (who react with) receptivity and others I think, frankly, embarrassment,” Willner said.

Reach reporter Rebecca Grapevine at rgrapevine@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: 'Period poverty': Kentucky sales tax on tampons, pads targeted by bills