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INDIANAPOLIS – Dozens of new laws officially hit the books today, affecting students, smokers, drivers, troops and anglers, to name a few.
The most conspicuous changes are also the most controversial – from raising the cigarette tax to tightening the state’s seat-belt laws.
“I definitely think it’s going to impact us, but it’s hard to say really what people think is worth the drive,” said Alicia Moeller, manager at State Line Tobacco Discount in Fremont, about a half-mile from the Michigan state line.
She said about 85 percent of the store’s customers come from Michigan to avoid that state’s $2-a-pack tax.
Now Indiana’s own tax is going up 44 cents – to 99.5 cents a pack – still leaving a $1 gap between the two states.
“We still have an advantage. It just depends whether $1 is enough. It might be for some people but not for others,” Moeller said. “I hear a lot of complaints about it, from everybody. I think it’s crap that tobacco gets picked on all the time.”
Gov. Mitch Daniels sought the increase to pay for a new health insurance program for lower-income Hoosiers, often called the “working poor.” His administration also believes the increase will be a deterrent to youth smoking and will spur thousands of adults to quit.
But Thomas Briant, executive director of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets, said smokers will just find new outlets, either across state lines or buying cheap smokes over the Internet.
And he said most of the Internet shippers are on American Indian reservations, which claim an exemption on cigarette and sales taxes.
Briant also said Indiana might be setting its health insurance program up for failure if Congress approves a $6.10-a-carton increase in the federal tax rate.
He quoted a congressional estimate that cigarette sales would drop 6 percent across the nation, giving Indiana about $28 million less in revenue a year from taxes plus a loss in annual tobacco lawsuit proceeds.
After years of trying, legislators closed a loophole that exempted pickup trucks and other vehicles, like SUVs and vans plated as trucks, from the state’s mandatory seat-belt law.
The new law goes another step further, however, in also requiring back-seat passengers in all vehicles to buckle up as well.
Indiana law already requires all those younger than 16 to wear seat belts, as well as passengers in the front seats of vehicles. Younger children must be secured in child-restraint seats.
“Statistics make a compelling case for expanding the seat-belt law,” said Rep. Peggy Welch, D-Bloomington. “While passengers in cars use their seat belts more than 90 percent of the time, passengers in pickup trucks use their safety belts only about half the time. By making this change, federal transportation experts believe we can prevent more than 20 deaths, 330 hospitalizations and more than $65 million in injury-related costs each year.”
She also noted several exceptions to the new seat-belt law. People will not be required to wear the restraints if they are riding in trucks on farms, in motor vehicles that are in parades or in the backs of ambulances or recreational vehicles.
In addition, the law does not apply to people who must make frequent stops for deliveries, such as mail and newspaper carriers and garbage collectors.
Other provisions of the bill prohibit anyone from riding in the bed of a pickup truck and stop law enforcement from using seat-belt checkpoints.
There were numerous changes to state education law, the most important likely being increased state funding for schools and the expansion of the full-day kindergarten program.
Other new alterations include requiring schools to conduct at least one tornado-preparedness drill and man-made occurrence disaster drill each semester and requiring districts to include the study of the Holocaust in each U.S. history class.
One piece of education-related legislation that was hotly contested during the session was Senate Bill 327, which requires schools to provide information from the Indiana Department of Health to help parents or guardians of girls entering the sixth grade determine whether their children should be immunized against the human papillomavirus.
HPV is a sexually transmitted disease, and supporters believe the new vaccine will prevent infection of HPV strains that cause 70 percent of all cervical cancer cases.
“We are not mandating that girls in sixth grade receive the vaccine,” said Sen. Connie Lawson, R-Danville. “We are requiring schools to send vital scientific information about HPV and the benefits and risks of the vaccine, so they can make educated decisions about immunization.”
At the start of each school year, parents of sixth-grade girls will be provided the information and asked to fill out a confidential form that indicates whether the student already has received the immunization, intends to get the shot or has decided against the vaccination.
The law applies to students in public and charter schools, as well as accredited non-public schools. A student will not be prevented from enrolling, attending or graduating from school if she chooses not to fill out the immunization form.
Lawson noted in a statement that the safety of the vaccine has been validated by both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. There have been no deaths related to use of the vaccine.
Lawmakers from both parties came together last year to pass a package of military relief measures.
One of the more interesting changes allows close relatives of soldiers called to active duty to take up to 10 days of unpaid leave from their job before deployment, during leave or after a tour of duty is completed.
“Hoosier families are called upon to make financial and emotional sacrifices when their loved ones are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan,” said Rep. Dennis Avery, D-Evansville. “The least we can do is grant military families the right to spend time with one another without fear of penalty from their employers.”
Other related changes include:
•Giving National Guard members priority placement in any employment or training program administered by the Indiana Department of Workforce Management.
•Enabling all males ages 16 to 26 to register for the Selective Service at any branch of the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
•Extending the six-year time frame that National Guard members have to use their scholarship benefits if they are deployed to active duty.
•Making all active-duty soldiers stationed in Indiana and their dependents eligible for resident tuition rates at a state college or university.
•Extending honorary diplomas to veterans who were unable to complete their high school education because of their involvement in the Korean or Vietnam conflicts.
House Bill 1299 made some changes to senior fishing fees.
According to the Department of Natural Resources, residents age 64 or older and born after March 31, 1943, will be required to buy either a $3 senior fishing license each year (lower than any neighboring state’s fee), or a one-time $17 Fish for Life senior license to be able to fish in public waters.
The $17 fee is the same price that 64-year-old anglers currently pay for their yearly license; but the Fish for Life license will be the last fishing license a person will ever need to buy in Indiana.
Indiana anglers age 65 or older and born before April 1, 1943, will continue to be exempt from having to buy either of the two discounted senior licenses.
In other words, seniors who currently fish public waters at no charge will not be affected by the new law.
Each senior citizen’s purchase of a discounted senior fishing license will bring the state an additional $7.90 of federal money, starting April 1, 2008.
The money gained will go toward sport-fish restoration programs and expanding and maintaining public access to lakes and streams throughout the state.
As many as 36,000 Indiana workers on lower incomes will see increases in pay over the next two years, thanks to changes in state and federal minimum wage laws that take effect this month, according to state Rep. Joe Micon, D-West Lafayette.
Micon co-authored House Bill 1027, which tied increases in Indiana’s minimum wage to the federal minimum wage starting today.
Both wages are currently set at $5.15 an hour but will increase to $7.25 an hour in three stages over the next two years because of action taken by Congress in late May.
The wage will increase to $5.85 an hour July 24, then to $6.55 an hour in July 2008 and $7.25 an hour in July 2009.
“There have been several efforts to increase Indiana’s minimum wage since the last increase nearly a decade ago, but they have all been rejected by claims that the increase will harm businesses and put people out of work,” he said. “While most studies indicate that the minimum wage does not affect employment rates, legislators decided this year to reach a bipartisan compromise that ties the state and federal rate together.
“From this point on, any time the federal minimum wage goes up, our state minimum wage also increases by the same amount.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 36,000 of Indiana’s 1.8 million hourly workers make less than $5.15 an hour.
nkelly@jg.net
