From an AP story appearing in the Journal Gazette entitled Time zone forums floated, it appears that:
Gov. Mitch Daniels has recommended that the federal government conduct eight to 10 public hearings in or near the state’s bigger cities, including Fort Wayne, to help it determine whether time zone boundaries in Indiana should be moved.
Also according to the article:
Daniels’ initial petition noted the law’s suggestion that the 10 counties in the Central zone remain there, and five in southeastern Indiana that currently observe daylight time stay in the Eastern zone. But it did not include boundary change recommendations.
The federal transportation department has said it was unprecedented for a state, county or city to request a time zone change without stating a preference.
I think Daniels’ approach is unprecedented because, as I mentioned before, I don’t think Daniels’ followed the procedure required for the U.S. Dept. of Transportation. That procedure requires the Governor to submit “detailed information supporting the requesting party’s contention that the requested change would serve the convenience of commerce.” (A summary of the ‘convenience of commerce’ standard is included in that prior entry.)
Because SEA 27 requires the Governor to submit his request along with any other necessary documentation prescribed by the United States Department of Transportation, and Governor Daniels did not submit any information concerning whether a time change would serve the convenience of commerce, I don’t think the Governor has complied with SEA 127.
I couldn’t say whether this failure to comply invalidates the DST bill, but if Rep. Crooks, Rep. Grubb, and the drive-in theater folks are serious about their opposition to DST, they might take a crack at getting an injunction to stop implementation of DST because Gov. Daniels failed to take the necessary steps for a proper determination of where the line between the Central and Eastern timezones ought to be if DST is observed. I would argue that some of the western legislators would not have voted for DST if they knew that there wasn’t going to be a real effort to get the U.S. Dept. of Transportation all the information they needed to take the request seriously.
Leave a Reply