The Indy Star has an article entitled Garton says House version of time bill won’t fly. The problem is that federal law prohibits county-by-county observation of DST. The Governor’s office went to federal attorneys to get this legal opinion, but, I feel obliged to mention that the Governor’s office could have saved the time and expense of seeking a federal legal opinion by simply reading the January 9 installment of Masson’s Blog. The Indianapolis Star article points out a discrepancy between what appears to be current law and the practice of the 5 eastern counties around Lousiville and Cincinnati observing DST when the rest of Indiana’s eastern time zone counties do not. The Star’s article describes the issue as follows:
“It is a state decision that cannot be delegated to a county or county executive,” wrote Neil R. Eisner, assistant general counsel for the Transportation Department.
Most of Indiana is in the Eastern time zone and does not switch clocks in April and October, the way 47 other states do.
The letter, however, seems to contradict what goes on in five counties in southeastern Indiana. Those counties near Cincinnati and Louisville, Ky., are in the Eastern time zone, like 77 other Indiana counties, but they switch their clocks even though they aren’t legally on daylight-saving time. The federal government has never taken any action against those areas.
Again, reading Masson’s blog on January 9 could have saved everybody a lot of time and effort. Initially, I, like the Star, thought the question of the eastern DST counties was intractable:
It could be a failure of mine, but under 15 USC 260, IC 1-1-8.1, and 47 CFR 71.5(b), I cannot see any authority to allow [Ohio], Clark, Dearborn, Floyd, and Harrison counties to follow eastern daylight time. If I’m right, those counties could be in violation of federal law.
But, later that day, I posted what I believe to be the answer to that question:
Looks like the enacting sections of Pub. L. 89-387 might act as a grandfather
clause. Couldn’t find the full text of that law online, but I found this:“This Act (enacting this section and sections 260a, 266, and 267 of this title and amending sections 261 to 263 of this title) shall take effect on April 1, 1967; except that if any State . . . or any political subdivision thereof, observes daylight saving time in the year 1966, such time shall advance the standard time otherwise applicable in such place by one hour[.]”
So, if the eastern counties were observing Daylight Saving time in 1966, they might be grandfathered in even if the other eastern time zone Indiana counties didn’t observe DST.
Without having the full text of Pub.L. 89-387 and without knowing whether Ohio, Clark, Dearborn, Floyd, and Harrison counties observed DST in 1966. But, seems like if they did observe DST in 1966, they would have been grandfathered in.
Just goes to show how valuable reading Masson’s Blog ™ can be. Hehehe.
Update: Updated to include Ohio County as an Eastern Time Zone county that observes Daylight Saving Time. Thanks to Lane Siekman for the correction.
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