Tampon Tax Relief Vetoed by California Governor Brown

Affirming, perhaps, that the one thing California loves more than being progressive is being expensive, Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a bill that would have exempted tampons and another bill that would have exempted diapers from sales tax.  Tip of the hat to the LA Times article here.

The full text of the proposed bill, which for the record uses covered “tampons, sanitary napkins, menstrual sponges, and menstrual cups,” can be found here.  The diaper bill, which can be found here, covered only “diapers for infants and toddlers, designated size 3 or under.”  Why there was no provision for adult diapers is unclear.

In a letter addressing these proposed tax breaks among several others, the Governor stated his belief that  “tax breaks are the same as new spending” and have to be balanced with budget cuts.  Unless new tax breaks also propose some way in which the decreased revenues would be offset by fewer government services or the taxes would be made up elsewhere, it seems that Governor Brown will stand his ground.  Since Brown has recently declined to veto some notable spending measures, cutting taxes seems unlikely.

Daniel Layton, the author of this post, is the principal of Tax Attorney OC.