Rebecca Dunham, director of Michael Klahr Jewish Family Services, places packages of diapers on a shelf Wednesday in the diaper bank at the Jewish Community Alliance in Portland. The organization distributes roughly 700,000 diapers a year. “We now have a waiting list for the first time in our organization’s history,” Dunham said. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Diapers may soon be tax-free in Maine.

The Maine House and Senate have given preliminary support to a bill that would eliminate the sales tax on diapers, both for babies and adults. Advocates say this tax hurts low-income families who struggle to afford diapers, which have jumped 20 percent in recent years and can sell for $45 a package at grocery stores.

“We are seeing more and more Maine families who can’t afford that,” said Rebecca Dunham, director of Michael Klahr Jewish Family Services in Portland. “So they are turning to diaper banks like ours for help. We now have a waiting list for the first time in our organization’s history.”

In March, the diaper bank in Dunham’s center distributed almost 56,000 diapers to its clients and other partner organizations to help families in southern Maine care for more than 1,100 children. The organization distributed 350,000 diapers in 2022. And even that isn’t enough, she said.

The number of referrals that Dunham has received from MaineHealth’s new parent clinics has doubled over the last year. Clinic families are twice as likely to need diapers as they are to need food, she said, at least in part because it is easier for needy families to find food assistance than free diapers.

Food pantries are calling up regularly to ask for more diapers, but the inventory just isn’t there, she said.

According to the National Diaper Bank Network, one out of three U.S. families reports experiencing diaper need.

Maine is one of 28 states that still tax children’s diapers, and the only New England state to still do so, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Diaper taxes can be as low as 4%, or as high as 7% in Mississippi. In the last three years, five states have passed diaper tax exemptions.

The bill, L.D. 287, would eliminate the 5.5% state sales tax on both disposable and reusable diapers, for children and adults, as well as diaper covers, pins and wraps. Initially, the bill only exempted children’s diapers, but an amendment on the House floor added adult diapers, too.

Volunteer Amanda Nguyen, left, and Rebecca Dunham, director of the Michael Klahr Jewish Family Services, work together to package diapers Wednesday in the diaper bank at the Jewish Community Alliance in Portland. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Analysts estimate this exemption would cost Maine about $2.3 million in lost tax revenue over a two-year budget period. The state Department of Administrative and Financial Services estimated the exemption would save a typical Maine family about $60 a year, per child.

In Maine, the sales tax adds another $2.48 to that $45 box of diapers. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but supporters say it adds up fast – removing that tax would allow parents to buy an additional 15 diapers a month, assuming the average box represents a two-week supply of diapers for a single child.

The bill was drafted by Rep. Kelly Murphy, D-Scarborough, a first-term lawmaker who works at a local preschool that serves 3- to 5-year-old children with intellectual and developmental delays. She said it is not unusual for children to arrive at school wearing the same diaper they wore overnight.

RASH A CONCERN

“A lot of our families struggle financially and try to economize where they can,” Murphy told lawmakers. “Unfortunately, this practice often leads to very painful and serious diaper rash. … The very least we can do to help families is reduce the cost a bit by eliminating the sales tax on diapers.”

Every little bit counts, Dunham said. About 60 percent of those who rely on the diaper bank say they’ve had to choose between buying diapers or something else, like groceries, rent or heat. More than half say they’ve missed work or school because they didn’t have the diapers needed to take their child to daycare.

Most Maine daycares require parents to send in each child with a full day’s supply of diapers, if not a full week, which means that parents who can’t afford to pay for a diaper could soon find themselves earning even less due to missed work, which compounds their struggle, or losing their job altogether.

The diaper bank run by United Way of Mid Coast Maine has seen demand for diapers increase fourfold, from 3,000 to 4,000 a month when Nicole Evans began work there as executive director in early 2022 to about 14,000 a month now. The agency can’t keep enough diapers in stock.

The increased need is heartbreaking, but Evans is also worried about the overlooked societal cost of not being able to keep children in clean diapers. The rashes and infections can lead to parental guilt and depression, which can lead to a loss in work productivity and a strain on the healthcare system.

“We don’t talk about it enough, but there’s a huge impact,” Evans said. “Not just on the one baby, but on the family that can’t take care of the baby the way that it wants to, and on the community as a whole that lets it happen. For me, this is an ought to pass for sure, a small investment for a huge return.”

The bill, which was approved under the gavel without debate during initial votes in both the House and the Senate, is expected to return to both chambers for final votes next week. If approved, the bill would be one of many that would be considered for possible state funding.

The appropriations table – which is where such bills are placed while being considered for funding – was where the Legislature’s last attempt to exempt diapers from sales tax died in 2020, a session that ended abruptly due to the pandemic.

A previous diaper tax exemption bill died in 2017 when the House and Senate could not agree on terms.

The number of diaper banks has increased in recent years fueled by studies linking diaper scarcity to a range of short- and long-term health problems in children. Infants require up to 12 diapers a day, while toddlers typically use around eight. Most families spend about $95 a month on disposable diapers.