Lawmaker abandons daylight savings legislation, but says issue isn't dead

INDIANAPOLIS -- A move to mandate statewide observance of daylight-saving time is "definitely not dead" this session, a top lawmaker said Thursday, but he has abandoned one plan he had considered for reviving the legislation.\nRepublican Rep. Robert Alderman, chairman of the House Public Policy Committee, had said Wednesday that he hoped to amend the proposal into a bill dealing with sales of tobacco products during a meeting of his panel on Thursday.\nThe Senate bill would prohibit the shipments of tobacco products other than cigars to an Indiana resident who is not a tobacco distributor. He said since daylight-saving time and the tobacco provisions both dealt with state administration, so he believed they could be commingled.\nBut Alderman said Thursday that it was unclear whether the Senate author of that bill, Republican Thomas Weatherwax of Logansport, would go along with such a change. And Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton, R-Columbus, told The Indianapolis Star that the issues of tobacco sales and daylight-time were not related enough to meet procedural rules on amending bills.\nA House committee endorsed a daylight-saving time bill earlier this session, but it was never voted on by the full House. It was eligible for a vote on a deadline day for bills to pass their house of origin, but Democrats boycotted the floor over partisan disputes with Republicans that day and prevented action on any legislation.\nAlderman said he would make another effort to revive the legislation in his committee next week, probably by removing a Senate bill of its entire contents and replacing it with the daylight-time provisions. Such maneuvers are often-used tactics to keep legislation alive.