By John Byrne, Post-Tribune staff writer
INDIANAPOLIS -- A per-pack cigarette tax increase took an important step toward becoming law Wednesday, as legislators agreed on which House bill to try to fashion into a public health-care plan for the uninsured with the tax to pay for it.
House and Senate members also agreed to not include a statewide ban on smoking in public places in any health-care package, according to Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary.
Brown, who chairs the House Public Health Committee and sits on the conference committee now trying to finalize an agreement to pay for the Healthy Hoosiers plan, said the smoking ban will become the focus of a summer study.
The amount of the cigarette tax has not been discussed, Brown said. But now that conferees have agreed in principal to using House Bill 1678 for the healthcare bill, they can start negotiating the per-pack increase, which Brown predicted will be between 30 cents and 44 cents.
The House on Wednesday rejected a bill that would require nearly everyone to wear seat belts in Indiana -- including people riding in back seats and those traveling in SUVs and pickups.
The House had approved the proposal earlier in the session, but Senate amendments hurt the bill on its return to the House, which voted against it 65 to 34.
The bill will now head to conference committee for further negotiations between House and Senate members.
The conference committee, for what could be one of the session's cornerstone pieces of legislation on property tax reform, convened Wednesday.
Authors of the three main tax relief proposals, Rep. Robert Kuzman, D-Crown Point, Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, and Rep. Jeffrey Espich, R-Uniondale, presented their respective plans in broad strokes and listened to public testimony along with other committee members.