Weekly Statehouse Update: Cigarette Tax, Controversial School Choice Bills Testimony
Brandon Smith/IPB News
A House committee passed a cigarette tax increase. The Senate approved an expansion of telehealth services. And legislation advanced to require nursing homes to allow certain visitors, even during lockdowns.
Here’s what you might have missed this week at the Statehouse.
Legislation approved by the House Public Health Committee would double the state’s cigarette tax, from $1 to $2 per pack. It would be the first increase in that tax since 2007. The bill also creates a new tax on e-liquids, used in vaping.
A measure that unanimously cleared the Senate this week would permanently expand telehealth services that Gov. Eric Holcomb temporarily allowed during the pandemic. The bill’s author, Sen. Ed Charbonneau (R-Valparaiso), called the measure “transformational.”
Bill Aims To Secure Reliability As Utilities Transition To Wind, Solar
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The bill’s author, Rep. Ed Soliday (R-Valparaiso) said the bill, HB 1520, doesn’t favor any one energy source.
FILE PHOTO: Brock Turner/WFIU-WTIU News
The bill is based off of a similar law in Michigan. Every year electric utilities would have to show how they plan to provide reliable energy to their customers for the next three years.
If the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission doesn’t feel a utility can meet peak demand times, the utility would have to come up with a plan to bridge that gap which could include building a new power plant or solar farm.
More than 75 bills related to the environment have been filed at the Indiana General Assembly, a swell that was somewhat unexpected in a year when lawmakers are facing major issues such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, racial inequality and widespread economic hardship.
Some of the bills could mean big steps forward for reducing Indiana’s carbon emissions footprint, boosting “green” industries in the state and cleaning up Indiana’s water and air.
On the other end of the spectrum, other bills could repeal entire laws protecting the state’s natural wetlands or potentially limit Hoosiers’ ability to protect themselves from factory farm pollution.
Listen to the broadcast version of this story.
A state House committee voted to extend a task force charged with developing energy policy for Indiana for another two years. But some lawmakers are concerned the new makeup of the task force wouldn’t best represent Hoosiers.
Under the bill, the task force would have fewer energy experts appointed by the governor and none of them would have to represent utility customers.
Democratic lawmakers who tend to favor renewable energy sources would also likely make up less of the task force. Republicans would get to appoint twice as many lawmakers. Rep. Matt Pierce (D-Bloomington) said it’s tradition to have a more equal distribution of parties in summer study committees.
Fourteen of Indianaâs 15 coal ash sites have left groundwater unfit for human consumption, according to a new report by the Hoosier Environmental Council. And unlike other states dealing with residue from coal-burning power plants, Indiana is taking few steps to stop pollutants from coal ash ponds from seeping further into the water system.
âThe contrast with other states is stark,â said Dr. Indra Frank, the councilâs director of environmental health and water policy and co-author of the report. In North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee and Georgia, coal ash is being removed from leaking disposal sites in floodplains and either recycled or taken to lined landfills on higher ground, she said.Â