PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Gov. Katie Hobbs signed House Bill 2938 Friday, mandating that businesses round to the nearest 5 cents if pennies are not available to complete a transaction.
The Greater Phoenix Chamber, which represents many Valley businesses, applauded the move in a written statement.
“With pennies no longer being produced and federal policy not yet in place, Arizona needed a commonsense solution that keeps everyday transactions running smoothly,” the Greater Phoenix Chamber said. “HB 2938 delivers that clarity—protecting both consumers and businesses while ensuring cash transactions can be completed efficiently.”
So when a cash purchase total ends in 1 cent, 2 cents, 6 cents or 7 cents, it is rounded down to the nearest 5 cents, and when it ends in 3 cents, 4 cents, 8 cents or 9 cents, it is rounded up to the nearest 5 cents, the Chamber explained.
The law states that totals ending in 0 or 5 cents are unchanged.
President Donald Trump announced an end to penny production early last year, saying it was wasteful. It cost 3.7 cents to make each 1-cent coin in 2024, according to the U.S. Mint.
The move led to a shortage of pennies in cash registers last summer, forcing consumers and businesses to confront a penniless future in which making exact change would be difficult.
The Treasury Department has said it will continue circulating the roughly 114 billion pennies that exist for “as long as possible.” Pennies must still be accepted as payment.
A bill introduced last year in Congress and passed out of the House Financial Services Committee would apply symmetrical rounding across the country. U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., said in an email the federal law is important to prevent a “confusing patchwork of state policies.”
The bill has not been voted on in the House and would still need to move through the U.S. Senate before reaching Trump’s desk.
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