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Pharmacists and wholesalers warn B&O changes would deepen pharmacy closures; committee hears ESB 6228 briefing
Summary
ESB 6228 would repeal a small preferential B&O tax for prescription-drug warehousing and reselling and create a 0.25% preferential rate for critical access pharmacies; pharmacists, independent owners and wholesalers told the committee the proposal risks higher wholesale costs, thin margins, fees already being passed to pharmacies and further pharmacy closures in rural and vulnerable communities.
Committee staff told the House Finance Committee that ESB 6228 would repeal the preferential B&O rate for businesses that warehouse and resell prescription drugs beginning Jan. 1, 2027, replacing that preferential rate with a 0.5% rate for wholesalers and creating a separate 0.25% preferential rate for qualifying critical access pharmacies.
Christina King, staff to the committee, explained the statutory definition of "critical access pharmacy" (more than 25 miles from another pharmacy, an…
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