GET STARTED

If you’d like to bring the issue to your local elected officials at your city or county level, here are some simple ways to get started.

Play politics

In order to advance policy change at the local level, you will need the help of a local elected official. These are your city council members and your county commissioners. They can introduce measures the end the sales tax.

Do your homework

Find the city council member and/or county commissioner who represents you. Most city councils and county commissions have plenty of information online including maps that will help you identify your specific representative as well as contact and other relevant information.

Once you’ve located your elected official, see if they have a campaign website where they have laid out their policy agenda and priorities. Study up on the issues they care about and see if you can find alignment with eliminating sales tax on essential items.

Reach out with the facts, and your passion

Elected officials respond to constituents. If they don’t, they won’t be reelected and they know it. But they don’t respond positively to constituents who don’t know they issue they are advocating for. Take the time to show your lawmaker you are prepared and knowledgeable about the issue. Here are some resources to help:

Three large Colorado cities have already made the important decision to end sales taxes on these essential items. You can see sample ordinances from around Colorado. You can share them with your elected official.  

• Aurora:

  https://aurora.municipal.codes/enactments/Ord2022-16

  https://aurora.municipal.codes/enactments/Ord2021-09

• Ft. Collins:

  https://library.municode.com/co/fort_collins/codes/municipal_code?nodeId=CH25TA_ARTIIISAUSTA_DIV1GEPRTAIM_S25-73IMSATAEX

• Denver:

  https://denver.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=5661757&GUID=F9056F60-81F2-4D97-BB96-84B1582B6D72&Options=Text|&Search=

  https://denver.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3859938&GUID=08AB3BDF-28B5-46E6-9DD8-9B4192FE10A6&Options=Text|&Search=

Once you’ve studied up on the issue and feel prepared, send your elected an email introducing yourself and the issue. Here’s some sample text to start.  

Dear XXXX,

My name is XXX and you are my representative on the XXXX city council/XXXX county commission. I’m reaching out to you today because I would like to enlist your help to advance an important change to our local city/county sales tax code.

I would like our city/county to eliminate the local sales tax on period products, diapers and adult incontinence products by deeming them essential items. Every Coloradan deserves to live with dignity. For far too many, their inability to pay for basic human needs including period products, infant diapers or older adult incontinence products, means they can’t. The state of Colorado has eliminated state sales tax on these items, and I believe our city/county should do the same.

The average Colorado family spends about $80 a month per child under 3 for diapers. This is almost $1,000 per year. One in three of these families report needing more diapers, but not being able to afford them. Some parents report missing up to four days of work per month because they cannot provide enough diapers to their daycare provider. The average Colorado family also spends about $15 a month on period products per family member who needs them. This is almost $200 per year. Nationally, one in four teens has reported missing class because they do not have access to period products. And older adults can spend anywhere from $160 to $240 a month on incontinence products. This is almost $2,500 per year. They are the Coloradans most likely to live on a fixed income, making it difficult to absorb added monthly expenses.

By eliminating our local sales tax on these products, we can help to bring them within reach financially for many.

I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss this idea with you further. If you’d like more information about this proposal, including seeing sample ordinances passed in Denver, Aurora and Fort Collins, you can visit https://www.donttaxdignity.co.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.

NAME AND CONTACT

Use your own network

To increase the impact of your advocacy, engage your own local network of advocates to help you lift the issue. As them to do the following:

1. Send an email to the county commissioner or city councilor you’ve identified expressing support for eliminating local sales tax on essential items.

2. Post social media content about the issue (You can find it here.) and ask them to reshare that content with their network.