Indiana votes to change with the times

INDIANAPOLIS -- When 47 states move their clocks forward an hour next April to observe daylight-saving time, all of Indiana is expected to join them for the first time in decades.

The Indiana House voted late Thursday to approve a bill mandating the historic time change, sending the bill to Gov. Mitch Daniels, who lobbied extensively for the proposal and is sure to sign it.

House Speaker Brian Bosma called the 51-46 decision one of the most "heroic" votes in his 20 years in the General Assembly.

"I can tell you that the rest of the nation, the rest of the world, knows that Indiana doesn't get it," Bosma said. "Now is the day to tell the rest of the world that we are willing to step into the 21st century."

Proponents of the measure, who failed to win passage of the bill earlier in the day, cheered wildly after it passed. The law would take effect next April, when all states except most of Arizona and all of Hawaii observe the time change.

Lawmakers had voted 49-48 against the bill earlier in the day, but that vote did not kill the legislation because it takes a constitutional majority of 51 votes to pass or defeat a bill outright.

Then, shortly before midnight, a freshman state representative who just a few weeks ago vowed to oppose the measure switched sides to provide the 51st vote.

Republican state Rep. Troy Woodruff said he changed his vote because the issue had become too partisan, and he wanted to move on to bigger matters such as the two-year state budget. He said he was prepared to explain his actions to constituents, many of whom had opposed adopting daylight-saving time.

"Some things are more important than re-election," he said.

Efforts to make the switch have failed more than two dozen times since most of the state's 92 counties opted out of the time change under state and federal legislation passed in the early 1970s.

Daniels pushed hard for the bill. Dozens of businesses and their lobbying groups also backed the bill, saying the current system causes mix-ups over airline flights, delivery times and conference calls.

Seventy-seven counties in the Eastern time zone portion of Indiana remain on standard time year round, while five in southeastern Indiana ignore state and federal law and change their clocks. Five counties each in the northwest and southwest pockets of the state are in the Central zone and observe daylight time.

The legislation requires that Daniels and the General Assembly petition the U.S. Department of Transportation, which regulates times zones, to hold hearings to determine if more Indiana counties should be moved to the Central zone.

The request would have to be made within days of Daniels' signing the bill. He has said the hearing process could begin within months.

Opponents of the bill cited several reasons for voting against it. Among other things, some said most of their constituents were against the change, and some doubted it would do much if anything to improve the economy.

"This is not the second coming that is going to take Indiana into the a brighter future," Democratic state Rep. William Crawford said.

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