Deck: Key Takeaways from the 2025 Elections and 2026 State Partisan Control
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Key Takeaways:

  • President Trump's decision to halt penny production in February has created unexpected challenges for retailers across the country, particularly as the last penny was minted in November and regional distribution issues are causing supply shortages.
  • Federal lawmakers introduced "Common Cents" bills that would establish official rounding rules for cash transactions to the nearest five cents, but congressional inaction has pushed states to develop their own solutions to this time-sensitive issue.
  • Utah became the first state to issue price-rounding guidance, while New York introduced companion bills with identical rounding rules. More states are expected to follow as the penny shortage worsens nationwide.
  • The penny elimination intersects with existing cash acceptance laws in eight states, creating compliance headaches for retailers who must accept cash but lack pennies for exact change.
  • Businesses are implementing inconsistent rounding practices without clear guidance, prompting merchants to seek uniform policies from policymakers to ensure compliant and fair customer transactions.



In February, President Trump announced he had instructed the U.S. Treasury to halt production of the penny. Nine months later, retailers and consumers are feeling the effects. The U.S. minted its last penny on Nov. 12, and although billions of pennies remain in circulation, regional distribution is causing a bottleneck in the penny supply, especially in the Midwest. As a recent WSJ article points out, “America last phased out a coin roughly 170 years ago, when it got rid of the half-cent.” This is relatively new territory. 


Federal "Common Cents" Legislation and Price-Rounding Rules

Federal lawmakers introduced two “Common Cents” bills (US HR 3074 and US S 1525) that would formally direct the U.S. Treasury to cease minting the penny, and establish in-person cash transaction price-rounding rules. The price-rounding provisions propose rounding total prices, after the application of sales or other taxes, to the nearest five cents meaning total costs ending in $x.x1, $x.x2, $x.x6, or $x.x7 would be rounded down, and total costs ending in $x.x3, $x.x4, $x.x8, or $x.x9 would be rounded up. Price-rounding will not apply to non-cash transactions. However, federal inaction to date has caused state lawmakers to try to tackle the time-sensitive issue.


State-Level Response to Penny Elimination

Utah's Pioneer Guidance on Price-Rounding

The Utah Division of Consumer Protection was the first state agency to issue guidance on price-rounding. In addition to the rounding recommendations, the Division published a printable flyer to be posted in stores for consumer disclosure. Utah’s guidance aligns with the rounding rules proposed in the federal legislation.

New York's Legislative Approach

In New York, companion bills (NY A 9274 / NY S 8580) propose identical rounding rules to the federal bills and rounding recommendations made in the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) Task Force on State and Local Taxation’s policy paper, entitled “Elimination of the Penny: Cents-able Considerations.” Should federal lawmakers continue to delay, we expect more states to follow New York and Utah’s lead.





Cash Payment Requirements Create Retail Compliance Challenges

The concern surrounding penny elimination also relates to the existing legislative trend of retail cash acceptance. As of 2025, eight states require retail businesses to accept cash for purchases, with 11 states debating such laws in 2024 and 19 states introducing cash acceptance bills this year. Oklahoma enacted a law (OK SB 677) this year to eliminate the ban on credit and debit card surcharges by businesses in the state. Localities have also been active on this issue, with at least eight major cities with laws on the books to require acceptance of cash. 

If a business is required to accept cash, but there is a shortage of pennies to provide exact change, then they’re left with implementing their own rounding rules. With limited guidance thus far, businesses and individual cashiers have applied varying rounding practices transaction-to-transaction. Merchants are looking for guidance from policymakers to provide a uniform, compliant solution. 


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This article appeared in our Morning MultiState newsletter on December 9, 2025. For more timely insights like this, be sure to sign up for our Morning MultiState weekly morning tipsheet. We created Morning MultiState with state government affairs professionals in mind — sign up to receive the latest from our experts in your inbox every Tuesday morning. Click here to sign up.