California Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday vetoed a bill that would have repealed the sales tax on tampons and sanitary napkins.
The bill, which was passed by the California Assembly in August, would have exempted female hygiene products including sanitary napkins, tampons, menstrual sponges and menstrual cups, from sales taxes.
Brown vetoed the bill along with six others that created or expanded tax breaks, saying that they would have reduced revenues by around $300 million in the coming year.
"Each of these bills creates a new tax break or expands an existing tax break," Brown said in his veto message. "In total, these bills would reduce revenues by about $300 million through 2017-18."
"Jerry Brown please #mansplain why it's ok to balance the budget on women's backs?," Democratic Assembly member Cristina Garcia, who authored the bill, said in a Facebook post responding to the governor's veto.
"Fundamentally this is about gender equity and leveling the field," Garcia had said in a statement after the bill was approved by the Assembly in August. "Every month, for 40 years of our lives, we are taxed for being born women. Every month of our adult life we are taxed for our biology. Every month we are told our periods are a luxury, while also being told they are something to be ashamed of and we must hide. Let me be clear, on biology, periods are not luxuries and they are definitely not something women should be ashamed of, period!"
In July, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ended the tampon tax in the state calling it a "regressive tax on essential products that women have had to pay for far too long."
Other states that have passed similar legislation ending the tampon tax include Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.