Period Equity is hosting a protest against the state’s sales taxing of feminine products Friday at Tulane and they want attendees to bring receipts of their latest tampon or pad purchase along with them.
LIFT Louisiana is helping organize the event, and Legal Advisory Board Member Laura Fine says there’s a legitimate legal claim at play here along with the protest.
“Bring a receipt for the purchase of feminine products, and then we have forms that they will fill out and we are asking the state to give them a refund because the claim is that the tax is unconstitutional,” says Fine.
Those without a previous receipt can make a purchase at the site of the protest.
Fine says the demand is for feminine products to be exempted from the sales tax in the same way that other necessities are. They’re hoping to send a message to state leaders, and, “In part to put the Department of Revenue on notice that many people in the state of Louisiana believe that this tax is unconstitutional,” says Fine.
The organizers are also demanding diapers be removed from the state sales tax as well.
33 states do not exempt the products from sales tax, and an effort to do so here failed to pass last year, but Fine says they’ve worked to sure up more votes for next year’s attempt.
“I think the support legislatively is there, it just got hung up on some procedural issues,” says Fine. “It’s also one of cost, as the state may be concerned about the revenue it will lose.”
The protest will be held on Tulane’s campus from 11 AM-3 PM.