Public sounds off on state clock change

INDIANAPOLIS -- The legislative fight over daylight-saving time moved Monday to a new stage, where lawmakers charged with trying to draft a compromise heard public pros and cons on a bill that would mandate statewide observance of the clock change.\nSeveral businesses and their lobbying groups said adopting the time switch statewide would eliminate confusion and enhance commerce while some theater owners and residents said all of Indiana should observe Central daylight time or leave the current system alone.\n"We are not the butt of a joke, we're the bedrock of a nation," said Marty Voegele of Batesville, who works for a motor sports company in Greensburg. "We are one of three high-quality states in the nation that has the guts to stand up for what we believe in."\nSeventy-seven counties in the Eastern time zone portion of Indiana remain on standard time year round, just as most of Arizona and all of Hawaii do. Forty-seven states and at least 70 countries observe daylight-saving time in the spring and summer.\nThe bill, which narrowly passed the House after intense lobbying by Gov. Mitch Daniels, must now clear the conference committee in revised form, pass the Senate Rules Committee, the full Senate and the House once again before it would be eligible for Daniels' signature.\nA compromise plan presented by proponents Monday would remove language allowing some counties, at their choosing, to opt out of the time change. The U.S. Department of Transportation has deemed those provisions illegal, and Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton, R-Columbus, has insisted they be removed before the bill could advance in the Senate.\nThe revised proposal would still allow counties adjacent to Illinois and pockets of northwestern and southwestern Indiana that are in the Central time zone and observe daylight time to petition the federal government for hearings and a potential time zone shift.\nAnother provision, which daylight time foe Rep. Dave Crooks, D-Washington, was able to amend into the bill in the House, urges Daniels to ask the federal government to begin proceedings that could result in more of the state being moved to the Central time zone.\nRepublican Sen. Marvin Riegsecker of Goshen, chairman of the conference committee, asked members to discuss the revised proposal privately with their caucuses and the group would meet again Tuesday. Four conferees must sign a plan for it to advance, but GOP legislative leaders can simply remove any opponents and replace them with willing signers to keep the legislation moving.\nRegardless, Crooks said he would propose a provision requiring the General Assembly to seek time zone changes from the U.S. Department of Transportation.\nAlthough Daniels said often during his gubernatorial campaign that he preferred moving most of Indiana to Central time, he has said in recent weeks that daylight time and questions about time zones are separate issues.\nMany residents, and Crooks, sported orange buttons during Monday's public hearing that promoted Central daylight time. Crooks said his previous provision urging the governor to seek that change "doesn't do anything unless the governor takes action."\nJennifer Thuma, the governor's legislative director, repeated Daniels' recent stance that Indiana should move to daylight time first before exploring possible time zone shifts.\nRiegsecker, a longtime proponent of statewide daylight-saving time, said he hoped a revised plan could advance to the full Senate soon, since the regular session must end by April 29.\n"I feel it's important to move this issue along and not let it get tangled up in the last week of the session," he said.