House approves moving start of daylight-saving time to next year

INDIANAPOLIS -- Legislation that would mandate statewide observance of daylight-saving time would not take effect until next year, and some counties could opt out of it under a change approved Monday by the Indiana House.\nThe amendment, which passed on a 52-45 vote, would require Indiana to turn clocks forward in April 2006 rather than June 5 as previously considered.\nRep. Dale Grubb, D-Covington, said his amendment also would allow counties along the Central time line to stay on Eastern Standard Time if the county commission voted to opt out of the change. This measure primarily would affect counties near the Illinois border and the northwest and southwest Indiana counties that observe Central daylight time, he said.\nHe urged other lawmakers to support the amendment, saying it only would affect residents in those areas.\n"If it doesn't affect you, why do you care?" he asked lawmakers. "It simply allows them the right of self-determination."\nBut others said the point of the legislation is to make Indiana more uniform.\n"We're trying to get all of the state of Indiana to follow the standard," said Rep. Jerry Torr, R-Carmel, who is sponsoring the daylight-saving time bill.\nGrubb said it made sense to push back the observance of daylight-saving time to next year rather than June 5.\n"People are going to be really messed up if we do this June 5," Grubb said. "It makes absolutely no sense to me at all."\nTorr suggested that delaying the change until next year would give opponents another legislative session to try to scuttle the law if it becomes one this session.\nThe House rejected several other amendments to the bill, including one that would have put the issue up for a referendum.\nThe bill is now eligible for a vote in the full House. If it passes, it next would go to the Senate rules committee, where the chamber's Republican leader has promised a full hearing on the issue. Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton, R-Columbus, said the bill as it stood last week would clear that committee and stand a good chance of passing the full Senate, but that was before Monday's changes were made.\nGov. Mitch Daniels has made daylight-saving time a top priority and says it would help the economy and end confusion about time in Indiana. Of Indiana's 92 counties, 82 are in the Eastern time zone, but 77 of those do not observe daylight-saving time.\nFive counties in the Eastern time zone -- two near Cincinnati and three near Louisville, Ky. -- do change their clocks, as do 10 other counties on Central time -- five in northwestern Indiana and five in southwestern Indiana.