Every so often, I like to read the legislation passed by the General Assembly. I’d advise the Governor to do the same. The bill that will bring Daylight Saving Time to Indiana is Enrolled Act, Senate Bill 0127 signed by the Governor on May 13, 2005. SECTION 1. of the act states “The state supports the county executive of any county that seeks to change the time zone in which the county is located under the procedures established by federal law.”
Governor Daniels, however, is pressuring the St. Joseph County Commissioners to drop their request. I have no idea how it would work out, but I’d argue that this gives the St. Joseph County Commissioners and possibly state representatives standing to go to court to ask for an injunction prohibiting implementation of the law. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’d also argue that state representatives have standing to oppose implementation of the law based on the Governor’s failure to comply with SECTION 3(c) of the law which required the Governor to petition the USDOT by submitting any documentation prescribed by the USDOT. The Dept. of Transportation requires information regarding the “convenience of commerce” (arbitrary as I think its criteria are), and Gov. Daniels failed to do it.
But, whatever the potential merits of a court case, I think Gov. Daniels is clearly violating the law. He is supposed to support the petitioning county commissioners of St. Joseph County. Instead he is opposing them to support the non-petitioning commissioners of Elkhart County.
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