(The Center Square) – The top Democrat in the Wisconsin Senate is no longer talking about ending Wisconsin’s pink tax.
Senate Minority Leader Melissa Agard wants to end the sales tax on menstrual products, but on Wednesday she was at the Wisconsin Capitol talking about “menstrual equity.”
“Menstrual products are necessities. They are not luxuries,” Agard said. “And without these necessities, many women and girls are at a disadvantage. They will miss school, they will miss work, they will compromise their dignity, they won’t be able to recreate with their families simply because the products that they need to care for their personal health are inaccessible, or unavailable, or cost prohibitive.”
Wisconsin’s 5% sales tax applies to menstrual products like maxi pads and tampons. Agard has for years said that is wrong. And said so again on Wednesday.
“It makes no sense that Viagra, potato chips, and Kit-Kat bars are not taxed in Wisconsin because they are considered to be necessities. But tampons and pads are, because they are considered luxuries,” Agard added.
Wisconsin’s sales tax does not apply to groceries, prescription medicine, and other essentials. Potato chips and some candy bars are considered groceries, while paper products like tampons, pads, toilet paper are taxed.
Proponents say eliminating the tax on tampons and pads would save women in Wisconsin a collective $2.7 million per-year.
“Periods are a common, normal occurrence that should be addressed within our community with a great deal of compassion and resources,” Madison Metropolitan School Board Member Ali Muldrow said Wednesday. “No one should be taxed, embarrassed, or ashamed to have a period.”
Agard has led the charge to get free menstrual products in public buildings in Wisconsin, and Muldrow led the charge to get menstrual products placed in “the vast majority” of bathrooms in Madison public schools, both the boy’s bathrooms and the girl’s bathroom.
Agard on Wednesday also brought Binti founder and CEO Manjit K. Gill, who has led menstrual equality efforts across the globe.
