5A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 2016
Does being female in the US carry unfair costs?
By COLLEEN LONG
and JENNIFER PELTZ
Associated Press
HOW STATES RATE ON ISSUE OF TAMPON TAX ACROSS THE COUNTRY
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Margo Seibert
and Natalie Brasington don’t think
women should have to pay a “period
tax,” and like a growing number of
other women, they are publicly ques-
tioning whether being female in the
U.S. carries unfair costs.
7he pair are among ¿ve New York
&ity women who ¿led a lawsuit last
week arguing that it was unconstitu-
tional for the state to levy sales tax on
tampons and sanitary napkins while
offering medical product exemptions
to many other items used by both
genders, like lip balm, foot powder
and dandruff shampoo.
The case, they say, is about more
than the few cents in tax levied on
each pack.
Sick of the social taboo, and frus-
trated by a lack of access for some to
a staple, these women and others are
talking very publicly about menstrua-
tion and gaining political traction that
would have been impossible a gener-
ation ago.
A national push to abolish sales tax
on tampons is gathering steam, led by
social media campaigns like#period-
swithoutshame. At least seven states
are now considering legislation. Illi-
nois lawmakers were holding a hear-
ing on the latest proposal Wednesday.
Connecticut legislators discussed the
issue Monday.
Cosmopolitan magazine launched
an online petition, and even President
Barack Obama has questioned why
the items are taxed.
“I tend to talk about my period
quite a bit, to anyone who will listen,”
said Seibert, a 31-year-old actress and
founder of an online campaign that
promotes a “shame-free” period.
A national push to abolish sales tax
on tampons is gaining steam. Here’s
how states rate on the issue.
States considering legislation to
abolish the tampon tax:
• California (7.5 percent)
• Connecticut (state sales tax is
6.35 percent)
• Illinois (6.25 percent)
Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo
Attorney Zoe Salzman, left, and
plaintiff Natalie Brasington have
brought a class action lawsuit to
end New York sales tax on fem-
inine hygiene products, in New
York. The lawsuit filed March 3 ar-
gues that it is unconstitutional for
the state to levy sales tax on tam-
pons and sanitary napkins while
offering medical product exemp-
tions to many other items used by
both genders, like lip balm, foot
powder and dandruff shampoo.
Tougher for poorer women
Brasington, a 31-year-old photog-
rapher, said the tax affects women
disproportionately and is a genuine
burden for poorer women.
“Being a woman is so expensive,”
she said.
Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, a vice pres-
ident at the NYU School of Law’s
Brennan Center for Justice, said she
began writing articles and op-eds on
“menstrual equity” when she discov-
ered food pantries were desperate for
sanitary napkins and tampons because
poor women can’t afford them.
The tax campaign reÀects a
broader debate over “gender pric-
ing,” or charging women and men
different rates for similar products
and services, from haircuts to razors
to T-shirts.
New York City’s consumer pro-
tection agency studied the cost of
800 common household items last
year and found that products mar-
keted to women cost, on average, 7
percent more than similar products
for men.
“Women’s outcry over this issue
isn’t just about the tax on tam-
pons. It’s a reÀection of the rou-
tine unfairness that seeps into our
everyday lives,” said Sonia Osso-
rio, president of the National Orga-
nization for Women in New York.
“At the end of the day, the tampon
tax movement is one small way to
challenge the broader sexism that
still persists. Because that’s the real
taboo here.”
While women’s advocates have
long lamented that many women’s
products cost more, their provid-
ers say there can be legitimate rea-
sons — a more decorative prod-
uct or more complicated haircut, for
instance. And some have noted that
women sometimes pay less: for life
and auto insurance, for example.
• Michigan (6 percent)
• New York (4 percent)
• Virginia (6 percent)
• Wisconsin (5 percent)
A bill failed earlier this session in
Utah, where the state sales tax is 4.7
percent.
States that do not tax tampons
and sanitary pads:
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
Where the taxes are
Nationwide, 40 states tax fem-
inine hygiene products, deeming
them non-necessities or even “luxury
items,” while making exceptions for
products as similar as adult inconti-
nence pads.
Currently, ¿ve U.S. states exempt
tampons and other feminine hygiene
products from their sales tax, which
varies around the country from about
2.9 percent to as high as 7.5 percent.
Another ¿ve states have no sales tax.
New York taxes tampons and sani-
tary napkins as tools “to control a nor-
mal bodily function and to maintain
personal cleanliness.”
The 4 percent state sales tax on
the products costs New York women
millions of dollars a year; estimates
range from about $7 million to twice
that, a minute fraction of the state’s
$142 billion budget.
Advocates say the cost, however
small it may seem, is burdensome for
poor women, who also can’t purchase
the products with food stamps.
“Having one’s period is not a lux-
ury,” state Assemblywoman Linda
Rosenthal, a Democrat who has pro-
posed abolishing the tax. “Because of
our biology, we bear this extra cost,
and the state should not compound
it.”
• Minnesota
• New Jersey
• Pennsylvania
States with no sales tax:
• Alaska
• Delaware
• Montana
• New Hampshire
• Oregon
Source: National Conference of
State Legislatures and state websites
The state Department of Taxation
and Finance declined to comment,
citing the lawsuit. Two major manu-
facturers of feminine hygiene prod-
ucts, P&G, the maker of the Tampax
brand, and Edgewell Personal Care
Co., the maker of the Playtex brand,
didn’t respond to inquiries this week
about the tax issue.
Zoe Salzman, the attorney on the
New York case, said they’d push to
get a judge to rule the tax unlawful.
“If men had to use these products
every month, they would already be
tax-exempt,” she said.
Meanwhile, the legislative pro-
posal has yet to get a hearing, though
supporters are hopeful about its pros-
pects, especially since Democratic
Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently said
the tax should be abolished.
That wasn’t the sense in Utah,
where a legislative committee last
month nixed a proposal to tax-ex-
empt the items. While some members
of the all-male committee supported
the idea, others questioned where the
state would draw the line on what to
tax in the future.
The Los Angeles Times, in an edi-
torial last week, expressed similar
concerns in opposing a tax exemp-
tion that California lawmakers are
considering.
Washington state to study risk of oil spills on the Columbia
By NATALIE ST. JOHN
EO Media Group
OLYMPIA, Wash. —
With greater numbers of ves-
sels transporting oil through
state waters, the risk of a cata-
strophic oil spill is increasing.
With that in mind, the
Washington Department of
Ecology has hired the Nor-
way-based maritime con-
sultancy Det Nosrke Ver-
itas (USA) Inc., to study
vessel traf¿c in and around
the Columbia River, and eval-
uate the risk for potential oil
spills, according to a March
3 press release. Additionally,
George Washington Univer-
sity will update a similar 2010
study of Puget Sound.
“The Columbia River has
not been looked at from a
safety perspective as a whole
body of work,” Scott Fergu-
son, a project manager for
Ecology said in the press
release. “With all the changes
in the type and mode of oil
transportation that travel
through the area, we need to
perform a system-wide review
of the river from the Oregon/
Washington border to Idaho.”
The Washington State
Legislature in 2015 passed
the Oil Transportation Safety
Act, which provides funding
for the reports. Over the next
four ¿scal years, the state will
spend about $480,000 on the
two studies, according to a
November publication from
THE DAILY
ASTORIAN
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ESPN
ESPN2
NICK
DISN
FAM
FMC
LIFE
ROOT
FS1
SPIKE
COM
HIST
A&E
TLC
DISC
NGEO
TNT
AMC
USA
FOOD
HGTV
FX
CNN
FNC
CNBC
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the Department of Ecolo-
gy’s Spills program. During
the evaluation process, both
contractors will consult with
Ecology’s technical team,
tribes, the U.S. Coast Guard,
the Washington and Ore-
gon pilots associations, har-
bor safety committees, pub-
lic ports and other interested
groups.
Goals of the “Columbia
River Vessel Traf¿c Evalua-
tion and Safety Risk Assess-
ment” include:
Reviewing
previous
analysis;
Evaluating the need for tug
escorts for oil tankers and
other towed vessels or barges;
Studying vessel traf¿c man-
agement and safety practices;
Determining what types of
equipment and operations
tugs need to safely escort oil
vessels;
Identifying weaknesses in
existing preventative and
responsive measures.
The ¿nal study will include
a report on the amount of new
oil being transferred onto ves-
sels as a result of rail traf¿c,
and a list of safety recom-
mendations. The legislature
will review the ¿rst draft of
the assessment next year. The
¿nal study is slated for com-
pletion in 2018.
Crude oil transport on the
Columbia began in 2012.
Ecology’s 2014 Marine and
Rail Oil Transportation Study
found that between 2011 and
2014, there were 29 ves-
sel emergencies with a sub-
stantial threat of a spill in the
river. Most of these incidents
were caused by some type of
human error.
The average age of the ves-
sels that carry oil, liquid chem-
icals, grain and other commod-
ities in and out of the Columbia
is dropping, due to a recent
surge in ship-building, accord-
ing to the study. The newer
ships have better environmen-
tal and safety features. How-
ever, other industry changes
could increase the risk of seri-
ous spills, collisions, ground-
ings, ¿res and other potentially
serious incidents.
The study predicted that
over the coming years, there
LISTINGS
A - Charter Astoria/ Seaside - L - Charter Long Beach
will be more very large bulk
and tank ships on the river, as
well as more ships carrying
crude oil and liquid chemicals,
which have a high potential to
cause environmental harm.
An overall increase in the vol-
ume of ship traf¿c could lead
to greater crowding and risk
of collisions while vessels are
at anchorage.
The report noted that
the Columbia has a num-
ber of unique hazards includ-
ing “a dif¿cult bar crossing
and challenging navigation
constraints,” such as a long,
“narrow and twisting” ship-
ping channel, limited depth,
and especially challenging
weather and current condi-
tions at the mouth of the river.
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