Arizona lawmakers are considering a bill that would give people who use hearing aids a tax break on the batteries that power them.
Several members of the Senate Finance Committee appeared sympathetic to pleas by the Arizona Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing to exempt the batteries from the state's 5.6 percent sales tax.
Democratic Sen. Steve Farley said the exemption makes sense, but "Whenever we put forward another exemption from the sales tax, another loophole, no matter how worthy, we need to discuss which other ones we can get rid of so we're at least revenue neutral. We can't keep digging the hole that we've found ourselves in."
The Department of Revenue said the state collects an estimated $1 million a year on the batteries alone.
If every exemption were eliminated, the agency said it would collect another $13.5 billion a year.