Governor Daniels is very Zen. I had no idea. Apparently, he believes that one can support by opposing. In this case, the Daylight Saving Time law – SB 127, signed by the Governor on May 13, 2005, includes a provision that 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.” According to the Governor’s general counsel Steve Schulz, the Governor is being supportive even if he formally opposes St. Joseph County’s petition. Like I said, very Zen. Schulz says that the law “requires nothing of Daniels except general support for counties that follow the federally prescribed procedures to initiate a time-zone change.” Even under that vague and non-committal standard, I don’t see how the Governor can provide general support alongside specific opposition.
The South Bend Tribune story by Martin Agostino on that provision of SB 127 comes a day after my post on the subject. Hopefully I did not steal Mr. Agostino’s thunder on this issue.
John Zentz, Republican member of the Marshall County Board of Commissioners says that provision of the law “would appear to require Daniels and state government to support his county’s Central-time decision. “I don’t know how he can have a foot in both camps and do what the law says,” Zentz said.” Mr. Agostino goes on to report:
State Rep. Dale Grubb, a Covington Democrat who opposed daylight time as a hardship for his constituents near the Illinois line, said he had forgotten about “that little clause” in the law. But he said he can only interpret it to require administration support for specific county decisions.
“It just points out the conundrum the whole situation brings out on this,” he said.
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