Looks like the latest battle in the war against the so-called “pink tax” has unfortunately been lost: Two bills that would have lifted the tax on diapers and tampons were vetoed on Tuesday in the state of California by Governor Jerry Brown. Why? Both bills were championed as ways to create more equality in the tax code for women and parents.
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They noted that California has exempted less indispensable consumer products, such as candy, from sales taxes.
“Each of these bills creates a new tax break or expands an existing tax break”. Governor Jerry Brown announced today that his state will not be ending its tax on tampons after all, despite the fact that a bill to do so received unanimous support from the state’s assembly. “As such, they must be considered during budget deliberations so that all spending proposals are weighed against each other at the same time”. This is even more important when the states budget remains precariously balanced, he said in his veto message.
California has become the first state in the U.S. to pay agriculture workers overtime pay. “Therefore, I can not sign these measures”.
AB1561 by Assemblywomen Cristina Garcia, D-Bell Gardens (Los Angeles County), and Ling Ling Chang, R-Diamond Bar (Los Angeles County) would have eliminated state taxes on tampons and other menstrual hygiene products.
“It’s disappointing that the Governor did not agree”, she said in a statement.
“We are changing, we can do it, but it’s still a challenge”, Yesica Ramirez, a former farmworker turned Farmworker Alliance employee, told the Monitor. At least five other states and some countries have already enacted laws ending such taxes as part of an worldwide movement to depict them as discriminatory.
The removal of taxes would have added up to a loss of $300 million per year for the state of California. Rodriguez and Democratic leaders in the Legislature pushed a bill to make it easier for a group of farmworkers to unionize by recognizing them after a majority signed up, without a formal vote and the accompanying certification process.
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The bill, AB1066 by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, will give the people who work in California’s farm fields the same overtime rights that other workers were granted under federal law during the Great Depression. “We will continue working to achieve sales tax reform and bridge the diaper gap that forces too many of California’s working families to struggle”.
