Feb. 10--Tampons and sanitary pads would be exempt from Chicago's portion of the sales tax under an ordinance two aldermen are pushing as a way to help correct what they say is an unfairness to women who need to buy the products.
The items are currently taxed at 10.25 percent like many other products bought in Chicago. The city's share of the sales tax is 1.25 percent, and that's the portion that would be removed if the ordinance introduced by Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, and Ald. Leslie Hairston, 5th, passes.
The aldermen also introduced symbolic resolutions calling on the state to reduce its sales tax on the products to 1 percent, the same rate at which Illinois taxes certain food, drugs and medical equipment.
Hairston called the sales tax on the products "an unnecessary and discriminatory tax against women.
"Removing the tax in Chicago and lowering it in Illinois would help to make these products more affordable to women, especially poor women," she said.
And Burke noted the products are not luxury items.
"This tax only affects women," he said. "Is that fair? Especially when sanitary products are medical necessities?"
It's unclear how much in revenue such a change would cost the cash-strapped city. The tampon tax proposal will head to Burke's Finance Committee for consideration. The longest-serving alderman has a lengthy history of proposing headline-generating ordinances that don't always become law.
jebyrne@tribpub.com
