The Aurora City Council unanimously approved a tax exemption for menstrual products and extended a cap on food delivery fees during its council meeting Monday night.

The menstrual care product ordinance, sponsored by Councilwoman Allison Hiltz and Councilman Curtis Gardner, removes sales tax costs for tampons, menstrual pads, sanitary napkins, panty liners, menstrual sponges and menstrual cups.

“I’ve done a lot in my time on Council, but I’m pretty excited to have brought this one forward,” Hiltz said. “Thanks to my colleagues for working to end period poverty.”

Hiltz said the ordinance is an effort to alleviate financial stress on women who have disproportionately been impacted in the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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With this approval, Aurora became the second Colorado city to exempt menstrual products from sales tax, behind only Denver, which passed a similar measure in 2019.

The city estimates that it will lose $230,000 in sales tax revenue annually by exempting the menstrual products from Aurora’s 3.75% sales tax – a loss Hiltz said is well worth it to provide “security in accessing the products they need.”

The Council also extended its temporary cap on fees that restaurants pay to third-party delivery companies like GrubHub, Uber Eats and DoorDash.

The cap, introduced by Gardner, was created to help bolster profit for restaurants in the city that are struggling to get by during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Denver passed a similar law in October, capping fees taken by third-party food delivery apps to 15% of the customer’s bill. Previously, fees often took up to 30% of an order’s cost from the restaurant.

The cap was originally established in November 2020 and set to expire at the end of March 2021. It will now end on May 15 or whenever pubic health orders allow restaurants to operate at 100% capacity.

During Monday’s meeting, council members also took a moment of silence for the shooting at a King Soopers in Boulder that killed 10 people earlier that day.

“This is a kind of tragedy that’s uniquely American and one that we know way too well here in Colorado,” said Councilman Juan Marcano. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”