FSU Law students are joining an effort to permanently abolish Florida’s sales tax on diapers and adult incontinence products.

“This bill will make a big difference for struggling families and seniors on a tight budget,” according to an FSU Public Interest Law Center statement. “One of every three families struggles to pay for diapers.”

Advocates cite a study that shows nearly 51% of Americans 65 and older use incontinence products, a figure that translates to nearly 2.7 million Floridians.

A Senate staff analysis estimates that Florida parents pay anywhere between $54 and $135 a year in state and local sales taxes on disposable diapers for a single child.

Parents can expect to go through 3,000 diapers, or an average of eight per day, in the first year of a child’s life, the analysis estimates.

State economists estimate that eliminating Florida’s sales tax on diapers and adult incontinence products could save consumers $22.7 million the first year, and $54.5 million annually thereafter.

Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, took up the banner in the House when she filed HB 29 on December 6, 2022. The measure would exempt “the sale for human use of diapers, incontinence undergarments, incontinence pads, and incontinence liners from the sales and use tax.”

Eskamani will lead a March 27 panel discussion on the proposed legislation from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the FSU Law Rotunda in Tallahassee.

In addition to the Public Interest Law Center, forum sponsors include the Claude Pepper Elder Law Clinic, the Children’s Advocacy Clinic, Elder Care Services, Inc., Disability Rights Florida, and the Public Interest Law Students Association.

The forum will also launch a diaper and adult incontinence product drive, with the donated products going to Elder Care Services, Inc., and the National Diaper Bank.

Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book of Davie is sponsoring the companion, SB 114.

A children’s advocate and mother of 5-year-old twins, Book has been fighting for the tax exemption since 2016. She declared a partial victory when the Legislature agreed last year to suspend the tax on children’s diapers — but only for a year.

“Now, Rep. Eskamani and I are continuing to fight for a permanent exemption on all diapers — including adult incontinence products — because working families shouldn’t be taxed on essential health-care items,” Book said in a statement.

Book estimates that the average family spends $80 a month on diapers, and that 21% of Florida children younger than 3 live in families that earn less than 100% of the federal poverty level.

If the effort succeeds, Florida would join 21 other states that eliminated similar taxes, sponsors say.

HB 29 faces hearings in the Ways & Means Committee and the Finance and Tax Committee before reaching the House floor.

The Senate Community Affairs Committee voted 9-0 to approve SB 114 in the first week of session. It faces two more committee hearings before reaching the Senate floor.

‘To inculcate in its members the principles of duty and service to the public, to improve the administration of justice, and to advance the science of jurisprudence.’ ~ From the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar