Proposed legislation would
exempt medicine from sales tax
Representative Spencer Black announced October 20, 2003 that he will introduce legislation to exempt all medicine from the state sales tax. Black made the announcement after Republican legislators advanced yet another package of tax breaks for big corporations.
“It is blatantly unfair for the state to tax working families and senior citizens for their medicine while doling out millions in new tax breaks to big, profitable corporations,” Black said. “After years of letting giant corporations shift their tax burden onto struggling families, it’s about time to give the average person some tax relief,” Black said.
Currently, prescription drugs are exempt from the 5% state sales tax, but consumers must pay the tax on over-the-counter medicine. The medicine tax costs Wisconsin families an estimated $27 million a year. By adopting Black’s proposal, Wisconsin would join nine states that exempt all drugs from their sales taxes.
“We do not tax necessities like food, rent and prescriptions. The state should not be taxing the aspirin a senior citizen needs for their arthritis, or the cold medicine a working mom needs for her sick child,” Black said.
Black decided to introduce the bill after Republicans who control the Legislature’s budget committee voted last week to provide $26.4 million in new tax breaks to corporations. The Joint Finance Committee approved a package of tax exemptions and credits for electricity used in manufacturing.
“Corporations are already paying less than half the share of state taxes they paid just two decades ago and working families and seniors are getting stuck paying the difference,” Black said.
Black said the repeal of the medicine tax is more important now than ever since many medicines that were sold as prescriptions are now sold over the counter. “Now, when Wisconsin citizens buy some medicines that they have purchased for years, they find that they have to pay tax on that medicine,” Black said. “Health care costs are already too high without the state adding insult to injury by taxing medicine.”
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