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Overview of Daylight Saving Time and Time Zones in Indiana

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Rumor has it that the USDOT’s time zone decision will be announced this afternoon. Perfect time for my site to be sketchy. In any event, I thought I’d go ahead and do a post with an overview of the time zone debate. Unfortunately, without my archives reinstated yet, I’ll have to do most of this without the benefit of too many links.

HISTORY

From 1918 to 1961, the Indiana/Ohio border was essentially the dividing line between the Eastern and Central time zones. In 1961, after hearings, the Interstate Commerce Commission (which preceded the United States Dept. of Transportation in authority over time zones) moved the dividing line westward, essentially cutting the state in half. In the recent debate, if the USDOT had decided to grant every county that petitioned its request to return to Central Time, the dividing line would have looked remarkably similar to the line as it existed in 1961. A good recounting of this period is provided in the case of Time Life Broadcast v. Boyd, 289 F.Supp. 219 (D.C. 1968).

In 1967, a movement was afoot to put all of Indiana on year round Central Daylight Time. Procedurally, it was easier to have the state put on Eastern Standard Time year round. Functionally Central Daylight Time and Eastern Standard Time are the same thing. So, most of the state was moved into the Eastern Time Zone with the understanding that the State would then opt to observe year round standard time. Some of the western counties wanted to continue to observe Central Standard Time in the winter months with their western neighbors, and so they were left in the Central Time Zone. In addition, everybody looked the other way while about 5 renegade counties around Cincinnati and Louisville observed Eastern Daylight Time illegally.

For the better part of 4 decades, this compromise worked. All of Indiana, save those few renegade counties, were on the same time for 7 months out of the year. For the remainder, most of Indiana was on the functional equivalent of Central Daylight Time, which is more or less consistent with Indiana’s geographic location between 85 and 87.5 degrees west longitude.

MITCH DANIELS AND SEA 127-2005

In 2005, the General Assembly adopted SEA 127 which repealed the provision of Indiana Law that exempted the Eastern Time Zone portions of the state from observing Daylight Saving Time. This was done on the thinnest of margins and only with the understanding that the issue of the time zone would have to be revisited. It bears mentioning how thin the support for the daylight saving time legislation was. On or about February 28, 2005, the original Daylight Saving Time bill, HB 1034 died without passing the House of Representatives prior to the relevant deadline. On or about March 30, 2005, the original text of SB 127 was stripped in committee and the daylight saving time language resurrected. On or about April 11, 2005, SB 127 failed to obtain a majority vote and was defeated 50 to 49 in the House of Representatives. Because the bill did not receive 51 nay votes, it was still eligible for a revote. On a second vote, three House Republicans, Eric Gutwein (R-Renssalaer), Don Lehe (R-Brookston, and Richard McClain (R-Logansport) switched their votes and allowed the daylight saving time bill to pass and be eligible for conference committee with the Senate. These three legislators have written to the USDOT docket requesting that their counties, Cass, White, and Jasper should all be on central time.

In the Senate, the Daylight Saving Time barely squeaked out of committee in a 6 to 5 vote with Sen. Allen Paul (R-Richmond) giving his “yea” vote even though he would ultimately vote against the measure when it came to the floor of the Senate. Back in the House for a final vote on the version adopted by both the House and Senate conference committees, the bill again failed to obtain a majority vote with a vote of 48 in favor and 49 against daylight saving time. Because there were not 51 votes against, the vote was brought up for a second vote and finally passed 51 to 49 only after Rep. Troy Woodruff (R-Vincennes) cast the final vote in favor of Daylight Saving Time, breaking a promise he had made publicly to his constituents that he would “always” vote against Daylight Saving Time.

LAW

The United States Department of Transportation has been given jurisdiction over the nation’s time zones by virtue of 15 U.S.C. 261. That statute states in pertinent part:

For the purpose of establishing the standard time of the United States, the territory of the United States shall be divided into nine zones in the manner provided in this section. . . . [T]he standard time of the . . . second zone (Eastern Time) on the seventy-fifth degree; that of the third zone (Central Time) on the ninetieth degree; . . . of longitude east from Greenwich. The limits of each zone shall be defined by an order of the Secretary of Transportation, having regard for the convenience of commerce and the existing junction points and division points of common carriers engaged in interstate or foreign commerce, and any such order may be modified from time to time.

The current time zone line in Indiana between eastern and central is established by 49 CFR 71.5(b). There appear to be no formal constraints on the power of the Secretary of Transportation to draw time zones as he or she deems appropriate. There appears to be a policy requiring a state or county official to request a time zone change and to answer as to certain criteria falling under the umbrella of “convenience of commerce,” but these seem to be internal policies as opposed to binding law. The three criteria suggested by 15 USC 261 are 1) the geographic distance from Greenwich; 2) the convenience of commerce; and 3) junction and division points of common carriers. While the Secretary of Transportation may not disregard these factors, they are not exclusive or dispositive. For example, in OST Docket Number 8, Notice 91-17 with respect to Starke County, Indiana’s petition to switch time zones, the Secretary appeared to give a great deal of weight to public comments that did not directly address the convenience of commerce criteria specified by the internal policy. Furthermore, no specific request from a Governor or county executive is mandated by the law.

The 2005 petition process

SEA 127-2005 directed Governor Daniels to petition for statewide hearings and to provide the USDOT with whatever it needed to make that happen. He merely provided the USDOT with a copy of SEA 127-2005 and a letter asking for hearings. He did not provide any additional documentation.

In response, the USDOT decided to improvise. The internal procedures allow the USDOT to respond to a time zone request from a state as a whole or on a county-by-county basis. Deeming the Governor’s request inadequate, it decided to skip the statewide approach and, instead, solicited petitions from individual counties. This put the counties in quite a bind. As a rule, one county didn’t know what its neighbor would do and so it couldn’t very well decide what might be in its best interests. The further east one proceeded, the less likely a county was to petition. Obviously not very much can be read into such a county’s failure to petition other than a recognition that it wouldn’t do the county much good to petition for Central if it had 2 or 3 or 4 counties to its west that may or may not petition for Central and, once petitioning, may or may not be granted its request.

Eventually, 17 or so counties petitioned for a shift from Eastern to Central. No counties petitioned for a shift from Central to Eastern. Throughout the process Governor Daniels’ positions continued to shift and his predictions of how the process would proceed in the future continued to be wrong. As a new development occurred, the Governor would do his best to make it appear as if the development was a good thing and was exactly what he expected and wanted. He berated local officials for being unhappy with having the time zone issue dropped in their laps. He disavowed his campaign position that Indiana would be best on Central Time and, in fact, tried to state he had never made such a claim; newspaper quotes from a variety of sources notwithstanding.

The biggest flashpoint in this improvised time zone process became the proposed division between neighboring St. Joseph and Elkhart counties. Lost in the debate for some reason was the fact that the alternative to that division was a division between St. Joseph and LaPorte counties. Another point that never received a great deal of discussion was the fact that, if Elkhart County was that concerned about a division from St. Joseph County, it was permitted at any time to submit its petition for Central Time to the USDOT. The petition would be heard on a different docket and be subject to somewhat different deadlines depending on the date the petition was filed, but otherwise be the same process as the other counties had gone through.

Once again, Governor Daniels shifted positions. Previously, one of his many positions on the issue was that time zones were naturally a local issue. That notwithstanding, he decided to inject himself into the Elkhart/St. Joseph County debate despite the fact that he had to break the law to do it. IC 1-1-8.1-3 requires the State to “support the county executive of any county that seeks to change the time zone in which the county is located.” The St. Joseph County Commissioners petitioned to change the time zone in which their county is located. In response, rather than complying with the law and supporting the St. Joseph County Commissioners (or at least keeping quiet), Governor Daniels actively opposed the petition by writing the USDOT (PDF) to say, ” I recommend the Department decline the petition of St. Joseph County to move from the Eastern to the Central Zone.”

THE FUTURE

Some of what the future holds depends on what the Department of Transportation decides to do. However, we know that a number of legislators have filed bills to repeal the Daylight Saving Time law or hold referenda to put all or most of the state on one time zone or the other depending on how Hoosiers vote. These bills seem very unlikely to receive a hearing. To some degree, the bills are going to be used as political cover by legislators, vulnerable on the issue, who had an opportunity to kill the Daylight Saving Time bill but failed to do so for one reason or another. Legislation changing the result, if any, can be expected if there is political fallout from messing with Hoosiers clocks. There is reason to suspect some fallout will occur. Certainly Rep. Woodruff is a huge target, given that he lives in the western part of the state, is a first term legislator, and renegged on a specific promise not to vote for DST, only to turn around and become the deciding vote on the issue. Other legislators may be affected given that the time issue is an emotional issue for Hoosiers. I don’t think Hoosiers will be motivated to vote for a legislator because of a DST vote they liked, but I think a fair number of them will be motivated to vote against a legislator for failing to leave the clocks alone. Is this a rational reason to cast a vote? Probably not. But, regardless of the issue, “single issue voters” are almost always casting their votes emotionally rather than rationally.

If, by chance, the USDOT follows Governor Daniels’ recommendation and reverses its preliminary approval of the St. Joseph County petition for Central Time, there might be a non-legislative approach to be had. I think there is at least a reasonable argument to be had that St. Joseph County is entitled to an injunction on implementation of SEA 127-2005 and Daylight Saving Time. The argument would go something like this:

Governor Daniels knowingly and recklessly violated IC 1-1-8.1-3 causing the USDOT to subsequently deny the petition of St. Joseph County. The provisions of SB 127-2005 requiring state support of a county seeking to change its time zone (SECTION 1 of the bill) are inextricably linked to the provision adopting Daylight Saving Time (SECTION 2 of the bill). Because Governor Daniels through his actions has nullified SECTION 1 of the bill, it is impermissible for SECTION 2 of the bill to be enforced.

IC 1-1-1-8 provides:

If any provision or application of a statute is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect the remainder of the statute unless (1) the remainder is so essentially and inseparably connected with, and so dependent upon, the invalid provision or application that it cannot be presumed that the remainder would have been enacted without the invalid provision or application; or (2) the remainder is incomplete and incapable of being executed in accordance with the legislative intent without the invalid provision or application.

The Daylight Saving Time provision and the support of county time zone petition provision are inseparably connected. It cannot be presumed that one would have been enacted without the other.

The Governor failed to perform and, in fact actively breached, a ministerial duty required of him and all other members of the State government by virtue of the law enacted by the General Assembly and signed by him. See Ellingham v. Dye 99 N.E. 1 (Ind. 1912.),

In order to invoke the jurisdiction of equity to determine the validity of an ordinance, there must first be asserted some property or civil right which the enforcement of the ordinance will violate, and facts must be alleged showing that there is no adequate remedy at law. If such rights and facts are asserted and established, the court will inquire into the validity of the legislation. Otherwise, it will leave the validity of the legislation to be determined in an action at law.

Indianapolis Market Ass’n v. City of Indianapolis, 192 N.E. 754, 755 (Ind. 1934). The General Assembly created a right of a county to support of the state when petitioning the USDOT for a change of time zone. The right was intended to allow an appropriate adjustment in the time zone line in the wake of implementation of Daylight Saving Time. The Governor’s actions deprived St. Joseph County of that right and, as a result, St. Joseph County’s petition was denied. There is no adequate remedy at law. Money damages are not an appropriate remedy for the yearly imposition of Eastern Daylight Time on the people of St. Joseph County resulting from the Governor’s violation of IC 1-1-8.1-1. The Governor’s actions cannot be undone. The only appropriate remedy is an injunction prohibiting the observance of Daylight Saving Time in the Eastern Time Zone portions of Indiana until such time as St. Joseph County is moved to the Central Time Zone or the Indiana General Assembly adopts legislation nullifying the application of IC 1-1-8.1-1 to St. Joseph County’s petition to the USDOT.

Not a slam-dunk case, obviously, but I think it is one that St. Joseph County would have a plausible chance of winning. Whether the citizens and elected officials of St. Joseph County want to go through all that is an entirely different question. It doesn’t do much for the citizens of the county, but a noble martyrdom from having been so wronged by Governor Daniels — according to recent polls, a person not very popular in that area of the state — could be more politically profitable for the elected officials than a lawsuit attempting to remedy the Governor’s misdeed.

Karen Francisco on Mitch Daniels

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Karen Francisco has a dim view of Governor Daniels in a column entitled Administration belies folksy campaign image. In it, she suggests that Daniels heavy handed ruling style is more in keeping with his corporate executive past than with the folksy, tenderloin-eating sales job he did with his “My Man Mitch” marketing campaign. She takes him to task for not being up front during the campaign about BMV closings, his indifference to environmental concerns (resulting in, for example, an attempt to bully Blackford County into rubber stamping a proposed confined-feeding operation), and his view of public education as nothing more than an unwanted budget item rather than a particularly important economic investment for Indiana.

She also devotes a fair amount of space to Gov. Daniels handling of Daylight Saving Time/Timezones:

Daylight-saving time is another example. During the campaign, I asked Daniels how he expected to accomplish what no other elected official had achieved. His reply was that he would take his case to the people, convincing them that it was in the state’s best economic interest to adopt it.

But that’s not how he went about it. Instead, he turned to some old-fashioned arm-twisting, wheeling and dealing. I think it’s hardly a coincidence that the wife of Rep. Troy Woodruff, who voted for daylight-saving time after insisting he never would, suddenly has a job with the Indiana Department of Transportation.

If the governor followed the course he had suggested, he would have learned what every legislator in Indiana already knew: It’s not about changing clocks twice a year. Not observing daylight-saving time was the compromise Hoosiers reached in the real battle over time zones. It wasn’t perfect, but it allowed both those who preferred Eastern time and those who wanted Central time to have their way for six months out of the year. Nullifying the compromise means that someone comes out the loser.

Tracy Warner on time zone referendum

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Tracy Warner has a post up entitled A timely vote? I posted such a herniated response, I thought I’d cross-post to my blog.

Mr. Warner says, in pertinent part:

What could be more democratic than a statewide referendum that gives Hoosiers the chance to vote on Indiana being in the central of eastern time zone? If only the issue were that simple.

State Rep. Pat Bauer, who heads the minority Democratic caucus in the Indiana House, said Democrats will seek the referendum in the 2006 legislative session. As Niki Kelly reports:

House Minority Leader Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, said his caucus will pursue two other major initiatives -– seeking a November 2006 referendum on what time zone the state should be in and a bill giving lawmakers oversight over certain privatization deals.

Such a move will take up valuable legislative time that would likely be wasted. First of all, I don’t see how the referendum could be binding; it is the federal Department of Transportation that establishes time zones. Congress could override the DOT decision with a law, but the state legislature can’t.

The idea of putting the entire state in one time zone is certainly appealing, but as Indiana learns more about the issue, it doesn’t seem possible. The northwest Indiana counties are adamant that they must stay in sync with Chicago and central time. Southeast Indiana counties demand that they remain in sync with Cincinnati and Louisville and eastern time.

If Bauer and the Dems make this a chief cause, it will hurt the party and only open more time zone wounds while solving little to nothing.

My response over at Tracy Warner’s site:

A time zone referendum wouldn’t be to directly overturn the USDOT decisions. Rather, I suspect the legislation would call for a referendum and then direct the General Assembly and/or the Governor to petition the USDOT to move *all* of Indiana to that time zone and to provide documentation supporting the decision.

The current, county-by-county approach being used by the USDOT was only the result of the State not taking a position one way or the other when Governor Daniels submitted his request for hearings. If the State submitted an adequate request (something that wasn’t done before) to shift the whole state into one time zone; then the USDOT would issue its Notice of Proposed Rule Making and look at the time zone issue from a statewide perspective rather than from a county-by-county perspective.

I suspect the USDOT would *love* to put the whole state on one time zone, regardless of which one. Certainly the people next to the time zone line, wherever it is, will complain bitterly. That’s just inevitable.

As a matter of politics, I don’t think this hurts the Democrats a bit. It sounds reasonable. Most people tend to agree in the abstract that the state should be on one time zone. People who are reasonably happy with the current time zone situation won’t vote *for* Mitch Daniels and the Republicans because of it. But a fair number of people who are disgruntled will vote *against* them because of it. Daniels has been wishy-washy, waffly, and deceptive about his time zone position. At this point, it only hurts Daniels, it doesn’t help him. The longer it stays in the public eye, the more of a bleeding wound it is for Daniels in particular, and somewhat Republicans generally — particularly Republicans in the western part of the state. (Troy Woodruff leaps immediately to mind.) So politically, the Democrats are positioned pretty well on this one.

As a practical matter, it won’t happen. The House Republicans don’t want to exacerbate their problems and the Indiana Chamber is pretty committed to Eastern Daylight Time, so they won’t allow a referendum to get any traction. Senator Garton just dislikes referendums (referenda?) generally, so it won’t get any traction in the Senate.

Governor appointee clears Governor of wrongdoing

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The Governor’s hand-picked inspector general has cleared the Governor of wrongdoing in an ethics charge.

State Inspector General David Thomas says a complaint by Democrats that Gov. Mitch Daniels violated ethics rules by taking RV1 to a political fundraiser is hogwash.

The Democrats call that a whitewash.

Thomas — appointed by Daniels to be the state’s first inspector general investigating ethics violations and corruption in state government — said Monday that the governor broke no ethics rules by parking the 34-foot recreational vehicle outside a July 19 fundraiser for Rep. Troy Woodruff, R-Vincennes.

(I’ve gotta give the Indy Star’s Mary Beth Schneider a big round of applause for the hogwash/whitewash juxtaposition.)

Taking Down Words has some thoughts about the Inspector General’s Ruling, saying it was unsurprising but also inartfully done.

The jist of this story is that the RV was initially donated to the Governor, prompting questions about whether the donation was an excessive gift. Governor Daniels said it was a donation to the State and not to him, so it was acceptable. That’s fine, but it places limitations on how the property can be used. In that capacity, the RV can be used for official functions of the Governor but not for political functions. In this case, the RV was apparently used to transport the Governor to Troy “DST-Dead Man Walking” Woodruff’s fund raiser, and was also apparently used as a display piece at the fundraiser. There is some question as to whether anybody got to go on a tour of the RV at the fundraiser.

I discussed the matter a bit in a prior post. As I mentioned then, I couldn’t work up any outrage over the matter. It’s all fairly technical and small potatoes. But, given Gov. Daniels penchant for casting stones about ethics during his campaign, he should be careful about having any glass in his house (whether it’s the Governor’s mansion, a house in a posh northside suburb, or an RV). A prior Star article mentioned Deputy Inspector Jeff Gill’s preliminary assessment:

Deputy Inspector General Jeff Gill — speaking before the Democratic Party asked for the investigation — was asked in general whether a state office or vehicle could be used for political fundraising. While stressing he was not giving an official opinion, Gill said no.

“Unless it’s permitted by a general written agency policy, it looks to me like it would be prohibited,” Gill said.

The official investigation concluded, “Our investigation shows the RV was not in any way connected with a partisan event, other than as a means of transport for the governor.”

This despite the Evansville Courier Press’s July 20, 2005 report that some people attending the $25-per-family fish fry benefiting Woodruff’s campaign also toured the RV. Today, the Courier Press stands by its prior reporting:

Thomas interviewed Daniels’ security escort, a team of Indiana State Police officers, who said no one except the governor’s staff entered the RV. Eric Holcomb, an employee of the governor’s office who attended the fundraiser, said the RV was parked 100 yards from the fish fry. Holcomb didn’t see anyone enter the RV, but if someone did, “it probably would have been a spontaneous and unplanned occurrence as has happened in the past,” Thomas wrote. Invitations to the fundraiser did not mention tours of RV1, Thomas said. Whitson reported that Rob and Kathy Southwood took their twin 6-year-old daughters, Hannah and Heidi, inside the RV. Thomas did not mention the family by name but said his office contacted a family “revealed in the article” who said Whitson’s report was false. “With our focus on whether the RV was used to obtain political donations in alleged violation of an ethics rule, the evidence did not even show that members of the public entered the RV for any purpose,” Thomas wrote. Courier & Press Executive Editor J. Bruce Baumann supported Whitson’s account of the fundraiser. “We stand behind our reporter as she personally observed ordinary citizens entering and leaving RV1, and therefore we stand behind her story,” he said.

So, o.k., maybe I can gin up a bit of outrage for this investigation if not the initial violation itself. The IG interviewed the Governor’s security escort, an employee of the Governor’s office, and possibly the family mentioned in the article (quite possibly loyal partisans if they’re attending a Woodruff fundraiser) without interviewing the reporter — a presumably disinterested witness to the violations — and without putting anybody under oath. Looks like a whitewash of a relatively trivial violation to me.

USDOT on Indiana’s Time Zones

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As I’ve mentioned in the past, Indiana’s Daylight Saving Time bill, SEA 127 required Governor Daniels to petition the USDOT for hearings on the appropriate time zone(s) for Indiana and to send a copy of the law, “along with any other necessary documentation prescribed by the United States Department of Transportation.” (emphasis added). The procedure prescribed by the USDOT requires that such a request be be accompanied by “detailed information supporting the requesting party’s contention that the requested change would serve the convenience of commerce.” Governor Daniels’ petition contained no such information.

The USDOT responded essentially by shifting the burden of data collection and submission assigned to the Governor by the legislature onto the shoulders of county officials. USDOT’s letter says

It is our normal practice, in implementing our responsibilities under the Uniform Time Act with respect to the location of time zone boundaries, to take action
on specific requests for change in the time zone boundaries for a particular jurisdiction from the elected officials of that jurisdiction. After receiving a request, we then determine whether it meets the minimum statutory criteria before issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to make a change.

Because of the inadequacies of Governor Daniels’ submission, the USDOT proposes to proceed by requiring “the appropriate local officials” (i.e. county commissioners) to notify USDOT of their intent to request a change in time zones, and provide the specific data and information by a date certain.

The principal standard for the USDOT’s determination is “convenience of commerce” which is defined broadly to include all of the impacts on a community caused by a change of time zone. Some examples are:
1. Where do communities get their supplies and ship their goods.
2. Where communities receive their news and television.
3. Where does the community get its bus and rail services.
4. The nearest airport.
5. What percentage of the community works outside the community and where do those people work.
6. If residents leave the community for school, recreation, healthcare, or religious worship, what standard of time is used in the places where these people go.

If the USDOT General Counsel receives sufficient information and determines that a change might serve the convenience of commerce, the General Counsel will issue a proposal and invite public comment.

While this procedure might make some sense, I do not believe it complies with the requirements of SEA 127. That law requires the Governor to submit the necessary information. If the bill had placed the burden on county commissioners, it very well may not have passed. Any change to the bill could have meant doom, given that the bill wouldn’t have passed at all if Rep. Troy Woodruff hadn’t broken his promise that he would *never* vote for Daylight Saving Time. And, as you may recall, a significant criticism of an earlier version of the bill was that it allowed for a patchwork, county-by-county, approach to Daylight Saving Time whereby county commissioners could unilaterally opt in or out of DST. Now we might well have another patchwork approach. Obviously the United States Dept. of Transportation has the final say in this matter. But a statewide approach is necessary here.

For example, Jasper County is currently on Central time. Let’s say that White County’s commissioners decide they want to remain on eastern time. But then, Cass County decides its in their best interest to petition for Central Time. That’s really nice that Cass County went through the effort, but practically speaking, they’re out of luck. White County has effectively vetoed any chance of Cass County getting to switch because the USDOT is not going to hopscotch White County, leaving it in Eastern Time because it didn’t submit a petition, and allow Cass County (one county further east), to join Central Time.

Governor Daniels’ press release on the issue shows that he may not have read Sec’y Mineta’s actual letter. Daniels says:

“I appreciate very much that Secretary Mineta has found a way to help this process move forward. I am especially grateful that the DOT will reach out to hundreds and hundreds of Hoosiers to solicit views on this important question, and then connect that feedback to the process that will give us hearings where necessary. We wanted an open and bottom up process and that is what we will have.”

Well, no. According to Secretary Mineta, he’s only going to listen to Hoosiers if their county commissioners decide they want to move to central time and then submit all of the “convenience of commerce” data listed above. In effect, Secretary Mineta’s response makes Governor Daniels’ petition a nullity. Under the time zone law, counties were already empowered to request a time zone change in the manner suggested by the USDOT. The process proposed by Secretary Mineta will be exactly the same as if SECTION 3 of SEA 127 had never existed.

If I were someone like Rep. Grubb who was really, really opposed to Daylight Saving Time, I’d be going to court and asking for an injunction until some resolution was had with respect to Gov. Daniels’ failure to submit all of the required data. (I’m not sure Gov. Daniels could have complied with the statute, but that’s the law they passed; so that’s the law they have to live with.)

Update 10:15 p.m. and thereafter

  • Mary Beth Schneider has an article for the Indy Star on Mineta’s letter here.
  • The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has an AP story written by Mike Smith here.
  • Martin DiAgostino has an article for the South Bend Tribune here and a more recently updated article, here. This article includes a quote from Rep. Bauer stating,

    According to House Minority Leader B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, the DOT process will insulate Daniels from making tough choices, despite his insistence on daylight-saving time for all.

    “The governor clearly was in a pickle and they needed to figure a way out of it, and they did,” Bauer said. “They passed the clock back to the counties.”

  • The Indy Star has an editorial saying that proponents of Central Time have a right to feel slighted by the lack of hearings and wonder whose fault it is that the hearings won’t be held. They suggest the USDOT, the Governor, and/or the General Assembly. It’s not the USDOT which is following its established procedure. SEA 127 required the Governor to submit all the information required by the USDOT. He didn’t provide information on “convenience of commerce.” Instead he merely wrote a letter. I’d say the blame is on the Governor for not doing what the General Assembly told him to do. I’d also put the blame on the Governor, both before and after the DST legislation passed, for not taking a stand on where the time zone should be.
  • The Lafayette Journal & Courier has a story here.
  • Taking Down Words has a blog entry on the subject, arguing while the author favors Eastern Daylight Time, this is another example of Daniels broken campaign promises.
  • D Derek says EDT is great for late evening sunlight, bad for live TV events.
  • Lesley Stedman Weidenbener has an article for the Louisville Courier-Journal quoting Rep. Dave Crooks:

    Rep. Dave Crooks, D-Washington, and others argued that if Indiana is to observe daylight time, most of it should move into the Central time zone, especially since Daniels said during his campaign that he supported a switch to Central time.

    The federal hearings were intended to test whether that argument reflected popular opinion.

    Yesterday, Crooks said he’s disappointed that federal officials will force local governments to take on the burden of applying for a change. He blamed Daniels for failing to provide enough leadership on the issue.

    “I think the governor called his Washington, D.C., friends and found a way out of the hearings,” Crooks said. “He knows these people and has a lot of connections.”

    It also has an interesting quote from Rep. Torr, author of the DST bill, suggesting that the USDOT suggested that this would be the result when the General Assembly was considering the requirement that the Governor request hearings. If the federal government gave a heads up, that makes the paucity of Governor Daniels’ submission even more inexcusable.

  • Jennifer Whitson has an article for the Evansville Courier Press (free subscription required) saying that the USDOT has indicated that any interested local jurisdiction should apply to by a yet to be set deadline. This is misleading since the counties have always been able to apply for time zone consideration. What SECTION 3 of SEA 127 contemplated was a comprehensive statewide process led by the Governor.

    • Winners/Losers theme

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    I saw that at least a couple of papers have pursued the Winners/Losers theme to wrap up the latest session of the General Assembly. The Indy Star’s version strikes me as slightly ridiculous in that it declares Mitch Daniels and the Republicans “winners” for getting their agenda through a General Assembly controlled entirely by the Republicans and declared Democratic Majority Leader Pat Bauer “a loser” for failing to successfully kill off Republican legislation. Then, without a hint of self-consciousness, it declares “bipartisanship” to be a loser. Well, gee. Maybe if we didn’t have editorial boards who tally wins and losses based whether or not the minority party could kill the majority party’s bills, bipartisanship would be a bit healthier.

    The Indy Star also tells a whopper by saying that House Ways & Means Chairman Jeff Espich “showed he could pay the state’s bills without tax increases while at the same time fixing Indiana’s long-running structural deficit.” We’ll see about that when property taxes come due. The Star ought to know that the new budget is structured so that more property taxes will be paid to fund the government. I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but the editorial board should be honest about the fact that higher property taxes will be paid under this budget and shouldn’t imply that Espich has figured out how to pay the bills without higher taxes. He has figured out how to hide the tax increases a bit, and maybe that bit of political cunning deserves some praise. In fact, later in the editorial, the Star contradicts the reason for praising Espich by confessing, “[The budget] sets up likely property tax increases for many homeowners.”

    Niki Kelly, for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette uses the unfortunate winners/losers theme, but does a much better job laying out the facts. She notes Gov. Daniels’ success but also points out that one party controlled the executive branch and both chambers of the legislative branch. If Daniels hadn’t gotten the job done under such favorable circumstances, his failure would have been remarkable. His skills won’t be particularly proven unless he comes to a point where he has to deal in a bipartisan fashion. I just wish he had been more successful and been able to bring Espich into line with Daniels’ desire for a balanced budget this year. And, I wish he’d been able to get Espich to balance the budget with a forthright short term tax on those making over $100,000 rather than an apparently permanent, albeit somewhat hidden, increase in property taxes.

    She also points out at least one winner that the Indy Star neglected — religious and social conservatives. They got their anti-gay Constitutional amendment under way as well as additional government regulation impeding a woman’s right to choose to terminate a pregnancy. They also were able to successfully reduce the amount of time a school spends teaching children by requiring the time be taken to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and time for other kids to remain silent while their kids take the time to pray in school.

    Neither of them specify Rep. Troy Woodruff as one of the losers in the session, but you’ve gotta think he is, given that his was the final vote that made Daylight Saving Time possible, even though mere weeks before casting that vote, he vowed to his constituents that he would vote against DST. “I realize the desire of my constituents is to defeat this bill and that is why I voted NO to Daylight Saving Time. I have and will continue to always vote against this controversial piece of legislation.” He originally won the seat by about 200 votes, so I wouldn’t think renegging on such a public promise would be helpful to him. But others could face problems if DST influences voting choices. In particular, Don Lehe (R-Brookston) was a primary vote that allowed DST to pass the House the first time; though he voted “no” on the final bill. And Sen. Allen Paul (R-Richmond) was the vote that allowed DST out of the Senate Rules committee, even though he voted against it on the floor.

    Teachers: Educators gained little traction in the Republican-controlled
    Statehouse in appealing for larger funding increases for public
    schools. Administrators have warned that teacher layoffs are
    inevitable, but skeptical lawmakers insist schools can save money by
    operating more efficiently. The advocates for more money were visible
    and vocal. The efficiency proponents, however, won the debate in the
    end.

    DST LIVES!

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    Representative Frankenst . . . errr . . . Bosma, with the assistance of Rep. John Ulmer (R-Goshen) and Rep. Troy Woodruff (R-Vincennes) has brought DST back to life. In an article entitled, House passes daylight-saving time bill, Mary Beth Schneider and Kevin Corcoran report that the vote stood at 48 to 49 against Daylight Saving Time with opponents calling for Bosma to close the voting. He didn’t. Reps. Ulmer and Woodruff were prevailed upon to renege on their vote, and Rep. Bosma immediately closed the vote once he got the result he wanted. Democracy in action. Presumably the villagers with the torches and the pitchforks will show up at the next election.

    The roll call vote is here. I see that Rep. Lehe (R-Brookston) switched his vote from Yea to Nay. As you recall, he could have killed it on the first go around, but voted “yea” and kept it alive long enough to go to the Senate. Reps. Gutwein and McClain stuck with their flip-flops.

    The Star has some related articles:

  • DST deal sparks another debate by John Strauss. This article discusses the history of Indiana’s presence in the Eastern Time Zone. From 1918 to 1969, Indiana was in the Central Time Zone. Since then it has been in the Eastern Time Zone. (Hence, in some parts of the State, Eastern Daylight Time is known as “double-fast time” — Central Standard Time = slow time, Central Daylight Time/Eastern Standard Time = fast time, and Eastern Daylight Time = double fast time.)
  • Indiana’s Tortured Time Debate looks at Indiana’s relationship with time zones and clock fiddling:
    -1883 The railroads come; changing God’s Time (noon is whenever the sun is overhead) to Railroad Time. Noon Railroad Time comes at 12:16 p.m. Indianapolis God’s Time.
    -1917 to 1919: Time Zones and Daylight Saving Time.
    -1919: Daylight Saving Time repealed nationwide
    -1942 to 1945: Daylight Saving Time implemented because of WWII.
    -1945: Daylight Saving Time repealed nationwide
    -1949: Indiana on Central Time – passes law mandating Central Time and no Daylight Saving Time. Counties in the east continue to do what they want.
    -1956: Statewide referendum shows a majority prefers Central Standard Time. No Daylight Saving.
    -1966: Yet Another National Daylight Saving Time bill enacted.
    -1971: Indiana exempts itself from Daylight Saving Time.
    -2005: The DST bill that couldn’t quite live and couldn’t quite die squeaks into law, and Indiana is on DST again.

    Update 4/29/05 8:38 p.m. (HST): The Evansville Courier Press has an article that makes it sound like Rep. Woodruff (R-Vincennes) wasn’t happy in his role as the final flip-flop necessary to pass Daylight Saving Time. Some quotes:

    House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, then held the vote tally board open for several minutes as arms were twisted.

    Finally Woodruff flipped, casting the 51st, tie-breaking vote. The measure passed 51-46. Woodruff repeatedly had said in recent weeks that he would not support the measure because Eastern Daylight Time is not popular in his district.

    When Woodruff’s vote came on the board, Bosma immediately closed the machines and supporters cheered. Several Republicans patted Woodruff on the back and when reporters approached, he was immediately ushered into the Bosma’s office with the doors closed.

    Gov. Mitch Daniels’ chief of staff entered, as did the House Republican campaign director. After a few minutes, an ashen Woodruff emerged to talk to reporters.

    “It became pretty obvious to me that this had become a partisan issue,” Woodruff said. One Democrat who supported the bill in the Thursday morning vote switched to no and a few other Democrats who were soft supporters voted no.

    Woodruff said with a shaking voice that the supporters said the measure could bring new jobs to the state.

    “People in my district certainly don’t know that there’s any value in it,” Woodruff said. “I’m trying to move the state forward. Some things are more important than re-election. And I think this is one of those issues.”

    When asked why he would vote with his party, but against what he had said his district wanted, Woodruff said, “At the end of the day, I’m going to have to explain this vote to my constituents. If you can’t explain why you did something one way or the other, then you probably shouldn’t have done it.”

    • Indiana Bicentennial 12.12: Mitch Daniels (2005 – 2013)

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    Mitch Daniels (2005 – 2013)

    Mitch Daniels was born in Pennsylvania, and the family moved to Indiana for his dad’s job with a pharmaceutical company. He graduated from North Central High School with honors and went to college at Princeton. While there, he got into a legal scrape involving drugs. These days that incident might have seriously derailed his future prospects, but it was the early 70s, Nancy Reagan had not yet told us to “just say no,” and so he got through it with two nights in jail and a $350 fine.

    Daniels’ entry into politics highlights a recommendation I would make to anyone. Get involved with group efforts. It leads to social connections that can lead to other positive things in your life later on down the line. Now, in Daniels’ situation, this happened on a grand scale, but I think it works the same for all of us in a kind of fractal way throughout our lives. In Daniels case, he participated in the campaign of William Ruckelshaus to unseat Birch Bayh in 1968. This was an unsuccessful campaign, but it led to Daniels serving as an intern in the office of then mayor Richard Lugar. Lugar went to the U.S. Senate, and Daniels went with him. He eventually became Lugar’s chief of staff which, in turn, led to him becoming executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and a political advisor to Ronald Reagan.

    In 1990, he followed in his dad’s footsteps to some extent and took a job in the pharmaceutical industry where, it sounds like, he made a pile of money.

    In 2001, he returned to the government, serving as the the director of the Office of Management and Budget. He was nicknamed “the Blade” for his ostensible skill at cutting budgets, but during his tenure, the federal budget surplus turned from $236 billion to a deficit of $400 billion. It’s probably not fair to lay that at his feet. The Bush administration pushed tax cuts first without worrying too much about the spending cuts. Daniels also got egg on his face by estimating in 2002 that the Iraq War might cost on the order of $50 to $60 billion, characterizing an estimate of $100 to $200 billion as “much too high.” The actual cost has been more like $2 trillion.

    In 2004, Daniels left the federal government to run for governor. His main primary opponent was Eric Miller who advocates for legislation of conservative morality. Daniels had more of an economic message and beat Miller handily in the Republican primary. He went on to face Joe Kernan. Daniels won by about 190,000 votes. In 2008, Daniels would run again, beating Jill Long Thompson in a walk — winning by almost 500,000 votes.

    Going from memory, the three biggest initiatives during the Daniels years were the movement of Indiana onto Daylight Saving Time, the sale of the Indiana Toll Road, and the shift from property taxes (with tax caps) to sales and income taxes. (Also notable was the rise of a small but scrappy blogging institution out of west-central Indiana.)

    Daylight Saving Time had long been an issue in Indiana. Moves to adopt it like the majority of the country were a perennial source of bills in the General Assembly. Traditionally, about half were for it and half against it, but the pro-DST crowd was generally split between Central and Eastern Time enthusiasts. But, with some major arm twisting, this time the bill to adopt DST squeaked through each stage of the process; culminating in an aye vote by Rep. Troy “I’ll Never Vote for It” Woodruff — who had pledged never to vote for it — that pushed DST over the finish line. Woodruff would be voted out of office, then find work in the Daniels’ administration with the Department of Transportation where he again found himself in the headlines.

    The Indiana Toll Road was something of an anachronism because building on it began before the passage of the Federal Highway Act. So, it wasn’t funded in the same way. The State lacked the political will to raise tolls, so maintenance was an issue and the bonds weren’t retired to make it a free highway. Gov. Daniels’ saw opportunity here, and, in 2006, sold it to a foreign consortium for 75 years in exchange for an infusion of cash. The consortium could raise tolls on the motorists of Northern Indiana without worrying about voters, and the rest of the state would get money to fund transportation projects. The money lasted for about six years and was almost gone in 2012 with about 69 years remaining on the lease. The roads funded by the project remain, however. Critical as I have been about the deal, I can’t deny that I enjoy the fact that the Hoosier Heartland has been completed, and travel from Lafayette to northern Ohio is much easier than it once was.

    The property tax issue has a long and complicated history. I am no fan of the tax caps written into the Constitution, they have numerous unintended consequences, but I also recognize that the problems and solutions surrounding that issue can’t be laid at the feet of any one politician or political party. For his part, Daniels viewed the problem during his term as being similar to that faced by Doc Bowen during his term and, consequently, he looked for similar solutions. Property tax freezes were offset by an increased sales tax and the potential for local government to increase local income taxes. Another part of the solution was the State taking control and responsibility over school funding. (This, in turn, created more opportunity for the “school choice” crowd to cash in on the privatization of schools.)

    At the end of Daniels’ term as governor, he appeared poised to make a run for President in the 2012 campaign, but it never transpired. Ultimately, he was selected by the Purdue Board of Trustees (many of whom he appointed) to be the President of Purdue University and has served in that capacity since 2013.

    Ten Years Ago on Masson’s Blog: We had big problems with health care before Obamacare

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    I don’t expect most “repeal and replace” advocates are arguing in good faith about the health care system, but in case they are, just a reminder — much as detractors like to complain endlessly about Obamacare, we had big problems that led to its passage in the first place. This post from November 2006:

    Fort Wayne Libertarian Mike Sylvester has a good post on the healthcare crisis. Some of his stats:

    Healthcare costs are rising 8 – 10% per year and are projected to rise at that rate through 2010.

    For 2005 the cost of a comprehensive healthcare plan was $11,480 for a family of 4 for one year.

    . . .

    The United States currently spends 16% of the entire National GDP on healthcare. This will grow to 20% by 2015. The United States spends the HIGHEST percentage of GDP in the world on healthcare. 2nd and 3rd are Germany and Switzerland at 11% of GDP. In relative terms, we spend 1.5 times as much as the next most expensive country per capita on healthcare. Also please remember that EVERYONE in Germany and Switzerland have free healthcare of some sort.

    In the U.S. we spend more and get less than just about anyone in terms of healthcare. We have all the bureaucracy of a government system without the equity that usually comes along with it.

    Some links to past healthcare entries in this blog:

    • In Indiana, Rep. Orentlicher seemed to have been taking the lead in developing solutions, according to the minutes of the Select Joint Commission on Medicaid Oversight. He was looking to the Veteran’s Administration as a model for reengineering health care delivery.
    • Healthcare and poverty in Indiana. Hoosiers had the highest rate of “medical bankruptcies” per capita. 9 to 14% of Hoosiers are uninsured. $950 of a family’s annual insurance premium is used to pay for the uninsured. Soon to be ex-representative Troy “I’ll Never Vote For It” Woodruff blamed the problem on Hoosier smoking and obesity.
    • There is an effort to use schools as healthcare delivery centers for children.
    • Too many of our healthcare dollars get spent on bureacracy, wasteful subsidies, and treating catastrophic illnesses that could’ve been nipped in the bud if the patient had been able to afford routine medical care.
    • Eight conservative, good-for-business reasons for a single-payer healthcare system. (Short version: 1. Transaction costs; 2. Employer funding; 3. The basic idea of insurance; 4. Value; 5. Risk cost of receivables; 6. Service quality; 7. Efficiency; 8. Patriotism.)

    Study: Toll Road Lease Bad for the Kids

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    The Associated Press has an article on a study on the Toll Road deal by a government studies professor out of William & Mary.

    “These transactions have important consequences for intergenerational justice because they enrich current citizens and governments at the expense of future citizens and governments by transferring future revenue to current budgets,” Gilmour states in his report.
    . . .
    “It is easy to see why current politicians view asset leases with up-front payments as wonderful, allowing them to spend today without raising taxes or appearing to incur debt,” Gilmour said. “In short, the ITR lease is a great deal for current residents of Indiana, but it offers little to those who will live in Indiana in future decades.”

    Presumably this means that people who are now criticizing the national debt because “won’t somebody please think of the children,” were also against selling off the toll road, but that’s not quite how I remember it going down.

    Whether the toll road sale was a good deal or not pretty much hinges on whether there would have been political will to raise tolls. Historically there had not been. My sense at the time was that the sale was a solution in lieu of developing that will. Aaron Renn has said that the numbers on the deal were favorable to Indiana. I trust his judgment on such things better than my own or Professor Gilmour’s.

    Still, I’m philosophically against selling off public infrastructure. The way I saw it at the time:

    I’m against selling off Indiana’s infrastructure. It’s just not a good idea to eat your seed corn. Mitch Daniels reminds me of one of those kids who gets set up with an annuity through a lawsuit from when they were a minor. They see an ad on daytime television from a company that will pay a lump sum purchase on the annuity. The kid is being ripped off, the company’s only paying 50% of what the annuity is worth, but he doesn’t care, he just wants a pocket full of money right now so he can buy that bitchin’ Camaro he’s had his eye on.

    Another thing that caught my eye was that the AP story quotes Troy “I’ll never vote for DST” Woodruff as the INDOT chief of staff. As you might recall, Indiana owes the implementation of Daylight Saving Time to him. It passed by one vote – that vote was his; after he said he wouldn’t vote for it. It would be uncharitable of me to suspect he got taken care of after he got his arm twisted and lost his seat.