Request for Indiana House time zone bill hearings

Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 23:02:14 -0500
From: "Bill Starr"
To: "Representative Randy Borror"
CC: "Luke Messer", "Tim Harris", "Steve Heim", "Michael B. Murphy", "John E. Smith", "Jackie Walorski", "David B. Yount", "Scott Reske", "David L. Crooks", "Jerry Denbo", "Carolene Mays", "Dennis Tyler"
Subject: Please schedule hearings on time zone bills

Dear Representative Borror.

I see that several bills related to Indiana's time zone have been filed in the Indiana House and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Economic Development and Small Business, of which I believe you are the chair.

Since the legislature did not explicitly address the time zone issue on a statewide basis when they passed the DST bill, I urge you to support a committee hearing for one or more of these bills, while Indiana's time zone boundary is still relatively malleable.

I am convinced that the legislature would wield considerable influence with the DOT should you choose to pass a bill such as this, which would make the time zone situation even simpler for everyone in Indiana, as well as for those with whom we do business outside of the state.

Without reuniting Indiana into a single time zone, many see the switch to DST as an incomplete and hollow achievement.

With a bill like this, the legislators could not only conclude the unfortunate era of Hoosier neighbors in different time zones, but also substantially reduce the likely confusion when companies outside the state deal with Hoosier businesses. Numerous comments at the DOT docket, as well as many who spoke at the hearings, express the fervent desire of many Hoosiers to see the entire state once again unified on a single time.

If the legislature had deliberately undertaken to maximize the odds of Indiana's remaining in two time zones, they could hardly have designed a more effective approach than encouraging the DOT to leave the decision-making with individual counties. A decentralized process is almost guaranteed to be piecemeal. We saw exactly this result last fall -- virtually no county wanted to request a time zone change unless they were about one county or less away from the current boundary.

Of course it's not likely that that all 75 non-petitioning counties are happy with Indiana's being in two zones -- just that nobody wanted to be the first to ask the DOT for the time zone they really wanted unless they were pretty confident at least some of their neighbors planned to as well.

About 36 counties lie one county or less from the present time boundary. It is telling that, of the 26 or so of these on eastern time, about 2/3 petitioned to join the ten counties already on central, but none of those already on central petitioned to go to eastern.

Unlike Indiana, which lies entirely within the natural boundaries of a single time zone, Ohio is split down the middle by the natural boundary (82½° longitude) between the eastern and central zones. Ohio residents long ago saw the benefit of shifting the boundary to their state border in order to be in a single zone. Indiana could also easily be reunified with a similar shift of the present boundary back to our border.

Ohio is 1½ times wider than Indiana and yet resides in a single zone. Alaska is 15 times wider than Indiana and gets along with only two zones. In addition to Alaska and Indiana there are about 11 other states split across time zones. They all range from 2 to 5 times wider than Indiana -- more than 3 times wider on average.

Given the many benefits to shifting the line to our state border, I see no compelling argument against a relatively narrow state like ours being restored to a single zone, like all the other states of width comparable to ours.

For several decades after our nation formally adopted time zones in 1918, Indiana residents enjoyed the benefits of a single statewide time zone. The only effective alternative to a piecemeal county-by-county approach to unifying Indiana's time requires courageous and visionary leadership by state government. With action this month toward a proactive resolution to the DOT by the General Assembly, we could likely enjoy a single time zone once again.

Following are specific bills for which I encourage you to schedule a hearing, in order of my preference.

HB 1205 -- Indiana time zones. Lehe. Locate 87 counties in central time zone.
HB 1057 -- Daylight saving time public question. Heim. Referendum: 92 counties to central or eastern?
HB 1014 -- Indiana time zones. Crooks. Referendum: 87 counties to central time?

Thank you for your service and your consideration.

Sincerely,
Bill Starr
1421 N 475 E
COLUMBUS IN 47203-9380
Bartholomew County GOP precinct committeeman
http://tinyurl.com/88nnw
Tue, 17 Jan 2006, 11:02pm EST