Bill cutting Alabama sales taxes on baby, feminine hygiene products awaiting final vote

Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, applauds outgoing Alabama District Attorneys Association Director Barry Matson in the Alabama Senate on April 18, 2024 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. The Senate passed a resolution honoring Matson, who is retiring. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)

Legislation to lift state sales taxes on specific maternal, baby, and menstrual hygiene items has stalled but could reach Gov. Kay Ivey before the session ends.

SB 62, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, would remove Alabama levies from baby formula, baby bottles, baby wipes, breast milk pumping equipment, diapers, maternity clothing, and menstrual hygiene products for personal use. It would also allow local governments to remove their local sales taxes if desired.

The bill is awaiting a final vote in the House.

While Orr said he won’t know the bill’s fate until the end of the week, the office of House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, said the House will consider the bill before the end of session. 

“Not sure if it’ll be this week but SB 62 will come out of the basket,” said Charles Murry, spokesperson for the House Speaker.

The Legislative Fiscal Office said the bill would cost the Education Trust Fund (ETF) budget $11.2 million a year when fully implemented. The Legislature is considering a $9.3 billion ETF for 2025.  Orr said that there are “some expensive bills” that have strong lobbying support behind them that will significantly impact the Education Trust Fund budget.

“If we passed the bill at hand, which I support — heck, I sponsored it, I’m all for it — what else is there out there that’s going to drain momentum? And now we’ve got more and more costs to the budget,” Orr said.

Stephen Stetson, director of Planned Parenthood Alabama, said that there might not have been strong advocacy behind the bill because it seemed like it was going to pass without an issue.

“There’s an irony in him saying that he hasn’t heard from the public because it’s already flown through both houses with virtually no opposition in either house. We know it’s a non-controversial bipartisan proposal and lawmakers have already put their name on it,” Stetson said.

Stetson also said that he would bet the bill would provide some relief to more Alabamians than any other tax break bills being considered.

“We’re talking about more than half of the people in the state that have either had a period and needed to buy a tampon or a pad; or infant formula, maternity clothing,” he said. 

Rep. Neil Rafferty, D-Birmingham, sponsored a similar bill in the House of Representatives. Rafferty’s bill has passed the House but remains in the Senate’s Finance and Education Taxation Committee, chaired by Orr. 

A message seeking comment was left with Rafferty.

Orr said that if they were to pass the bill, he’d have to know that the tax break bills wouldn’t put the state in financial trouble.

“We certainly cannot pass all of them all the tax revenue reducing bills. Period,” Orr said.

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