Eight new Indiana laws taking effect July 1
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Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
You can (legally) drive up to 65 miles per hour on Interstate 465 starting today.
Why it matters: Pretty much everyone drives over the 55 mph speed limit on I-465 — now you can better keep up with the flow of traffic without risking a ticket.
Driving the news: The speed limit increase, part of a road funding bill passed in the last legislative session, is one of dozens of new laws taking effect Tuesday, the start of Indiana's new fiscal year.
Zoom in: Here are seven more.
🚬 Cigarettes are now more expensive. Lawmakers raised the tax $2 per pack in the state budget bill as a way to offset some of the rising cost of Medicaid.
🚫 The ban on transgender girls and women participating in female college sports teams has taken effect.
- House Bill 1041 builds on a 2022 law that banned transgender girls from playing girls' sports at the K-12 level.
🥩 A two-year moratorium on lab-grown meat starts now.
- House Bill 1425 puts a temporary ban on the sale of lab-grown meat, also called "cultivated meat," in the state and prohibits it from being labeled as a meat product.
- Lawmakers raised concerns about the safety of lab-grown meat.
The other side: A cultivated-meat producer served sandwiches made with lab-grown chicken at the Indianapolis 500, ahead of the ban taking effect.
- The same producer, Upside Foods, is suing Florida over a similar ban that the state passed last year in an attempt to protect its agriculture industry.
🤑 The annual starting pay for Hoosier teachers is now $45,000, up from $40,000, thanks to Senate Bill 146.
🗳️ You may soon see school board candidates identifying with a political party.
- Senate Bill 287 gives candidates for these formerly nonpartisan positions an option to indicate their party affiliation.
💼 Healthy Indiana Plan participants will need to get to work if they want to stay in the Medicaid expansion program.
- Starting Tuesday, Senate Bill 2 requires participants to work or volunteer at least 20 hours a week, with some exceptions, including for people receiving unemployment, in rehab, going to school, or parenting young children.