Tax exemptions of the Missouri legislature are based upon 1. profit— the underlying margin which the state stands to lose or gain and 2. principle— the notion that our state should not collect funds from certain essential purchases. We tax-exempt hospital beds, newspapers and textbooks, but also bingo cards and hotel shampoo.
Missouri legislators are currently considering Senate Bill 897, which aims to exempt femine hygiene products— medical and sanitary materials that most Missouri women need— from taxation. As this legislative session comes to a close, I ask of you to join the other 13 states which have lifted the tampon tax, and the other 31 which have introduced similar legislation this year. The profit unrighteously taken from this state’s women makes up roughly 0.017% of your $35 billion budget, and if you can’t let such a profit slip away, start with getting bingo sheets off the list. If the state still wants more, cash in some of the recent $3 billion budget surplus (which would still leave a whopping $2.94 billion of excess funds to play with). Missourians as a whole can surely agree that if the state has no will to tax tractor lubricant, then it has not the principle nor the profit incentive to tax maxipads.
G.F. Fuller
St. Louis
