I had an Email this morning from Representative Mike Moyle, sponsor of Idaho House Bill 198 whose intent was to establish Year-Round DST in the state. His Email was in response to several I had sent to him and Chair of the Idaho House Ways and Means Committee Christy Perry, outlining the problems associated with the proposal.
Rep. Moyle’s response was:
Thanks Ray, the bill will not go forward because it is flawed. Thanks for your message and information.
If Idaho (or any state!) is to ever have the possibility of going to Year-Round DST, they should follow my advice on what they can do now.
I had just learned of this bill (198) this morning (03/06) as my wife was reviewing some state level emails for her job. At first I thought it is a great idea but in reading the bill is to keep the state on DST all year long, that is a bad idea in my opinion. All year Standard time would be a better I believe as with the longer days this far north, Bonners Ferry, I feel the change to year DST is negligible. What would be the difference from having the wildlife start to wake everyone up towards mid summer at 3:30 am as DST or 4:30 am as Standard Time? As well as light until 10:30 pm DST or 9:30 pm as ST?
What would be a better idea is make ALL of Idaho Mountain Time instead of the North part Pacific time and the South MTN time. Most people out of the state already believe the entire state is MTN time! And that 1 hour difference, all year long, is a real pain with so much of the state level activities being done in the Boise area and an hour earlier than here.
I remember years back when it was a strict 6 months of each, DST and ST, then that year when year round DST was tried but in the southern states that meant kids at bus stops in the dark during spring and fall when ST meant in the light so an uproar that got killed.
And now it’s been the incremental encroachment of longer DST to what it is now, about 8 months of DST and 4 months of ST.
Main thing is, if the sponsor says it’s can’t make it for being “flawed”, it’s dead!
Joseph, check out the Idaho legislature web site link on our web site, and contact your representatives in the Idaho state Congress. They do listen!
The reason for this bill being “flawed” is that the US federal statutes don’t allow a state the option of selecting “Year-Round DST”. Unless the US Congress changes the law, it can’t happen for any state.
Thanks for commenting!