'Time' for smarts

For at least a year, we've heard from Gov. Mitch Daniels about the economic importance of switching to daylight-saving time. It makes sense that confusion about the time doesn't help anyone operate their business more efficiently.\nWhat doesn't make sense is the current mess the legislature has created. One would think that a bill to sync Indiana's clocks with the rest of the country couldn't be too complicated. \nApparently, it wasn't complicated enough. The current version of Senate Bill 127 has an amendment that passed the House of Representatives 52-45. That amendment would let any county adjacent to the Central time zone (like those bordering Illinois) decide to opt out of the time switch. Then, to make things even messier, any counties next to a county that opts out could also opt out of the change. In case you're confused, that means a potential cascading effect that makes the state a patchwork of time zones. \nIt's entirely plausible that this amendment was added to kill or delay the daylight-saving bill, but a majority of the House still voted for it. There are some policy issues that just work better if they're handled at the local level. Daylight-saving time that affects everyone's travel is not one of those issues. \nA lot more people cross county lines every day than cross state lines every day. Every legislator with an ounce of common sense and concern for efficiency should nip this in the bud. Some legislators are dallying about what procedure to take to align the bill with the law.\nThe state legislature never tires of silly legislation (i.e. a bill to declare a state insect), but this goes beyond the ridiculous. This time, its antics are actually illegal, according to the Federal Transportation Authority. If anyone were to get in trouble, it would probably be the counties that decided to take advantage of the provision in the state law, which actually violates federal rules.\nWe understand that the legislative process is complicated, but there just isn't any reason for anyone to vote for this bill while that hassle of a provision is still in it. This amendment maneuver is taking up valuable time of our part-time legislature. If our representatives have to spend their time cleaning up amendments that would allow illegal activity, then they have that much less time to spend working on bills that aren't illegal.\nNo one looks good covered in this muck. Come on, guys. Get your act together and take the initiative to fix this amendment immediately. Don't leave it until tomorrow. Don't leave it until next week. Do it now. Do it yourselves. Don't expect the next step in the process to take care of it. The longer it sticks around, the smellier the mess gets. \nThis state legislative session has already been disrupted by a walk-out, among other wranglings, but illegality of an amendment is a new low. The amendment itself makes no logical sense, and it needs to be corrected immediately.