INDIANAPOLIS €" The Indiana House and Senate are hammering out differences in a statewide smoking ban that would exclude bars and nursing homes (Senate version) and allow localities to approve stronger bans (House), the Evansville Courier & Press reports. The joint committee will reconcile the two versions before the bill heads back to the separate chambers for final approval.

"I don€™t want to go down that path of trying to trump what locals have successfully done for a number of years," said Rep. Eric Turner, who authored the House version, which had a more stringent ban.

The Senate bill would allow current ordinances stronger than the statewide ban to continue, but would not let municipalities pass new bans that are stricter than the statewide one. That version also would bar localities from prohibiting smoking at any state casino or racinos. However, the Senate measure virtually took the teeth out of the ban by allowing smoking to continue in bars.

The Indiana House has passed a statewide smoking ban annually for the past five years, but the Senate shot down each one before now. The joint conference committee is in closed-door meetings while working on merging the two bills.