HARRISBURG -- Pennsylvanians will have to wait a while longer before they know what a new smoke-free workplace bill will look like.

For the third time, a six-member, House-Senate conference committee has postponed action on Senate Bill 246, which will determine what workplaces and public places must be smoke-free and which ones will continue to permit tobacco to be smoked.

The panel held a short session today and then recessed until Monday, saying it's still not ready to vote.

Sen. Charles McIlhinney, R-Bucks County, refused to give details, but said some "technical procedures'' on how to enforce a smoking ban came from Gov. Ed Rendell's office yesterday, and Mr. McIlhinney needs more time to work this information into a version of the smoke-free bill he will offer on Monday.

The new information has to do with whether state police or local police would be responsible for enforcing the smoke-free law, if one is adopted by the Legislature, he said, but wouldn't elaborate.

The biggest battles still loom over whether to have a strict smoking ban, where almost every workplace, including taverns, bars, restaurants, private membership clubs, cigar bars and casinos, would have to be smoke-free, or whether to permit some "exceptions,'' where smoking would still be permitted.

Casinos are fighting to have at least part of their slots floors be exempted, so that gamblers can smoke while playing the slots, rather than having to go to special smoking rooms, removed from the gaming floor, as New Jersey is going to require. The Meadows wants to be allowed to set its own policy on smoking, as is done in West Virginia, spokesman David LaTorre said.

Another major issue is whether to permit localities and counties to enact their own smoking bans that are tougher than the state law. Cigarette companies want one law that covers every town and county in Pennsylvania, but some municipalities want to be able to pass their own law if the new state law turns out to have many exceptions. Philadelphia already has its own smoking ban, which may be nullified if a statewide ban goes into effect.

Mr. McIlhinney vowed that a smoke-free bill will be voted out of the committee "before we go into budget season.'' That means he's hoping for committee action in May, because June is when talks heat up between legislators and the governor on the new state budget, which is to take effect July 1.