FEATURED BILL: HYGIENE PRODUCT SALES TAX EXEMPTION

More than one in five women cannot afford menstrual hygiene products each month, and a quarter of teenage girls skip school because of a lack of access to them, according to two recent studies.

That’s why Representative von Haefen, along with colleagues Reps. Dahle, Butler, and Belk and Sens. Marcus, Murdock, and Mayfield introduced the Hygiene Product Sales Tax Exemption bill to the General Assembly this April.

The bill would stop classifying menstrual hygiene products, like tampons and sanitary pads, as “luxury goods,” thereby exempting them from a sales tax which can range from 4.75 to 7.5 percent statewide. It would save people with periods in North Carolina a total of $8 million a year.

Ending the “tampon tax” would have a negligible effect on the state’s budget (it accounts for less than 0.01% of total revenue) but would be instrumental in ending period poverty for North Carolinians.