State lawmakers want to make Daylight Saving Time permanent, others also want one time zone

When Sen. Greg Steube’s barber speaks, he listens.

The Bradenton Republican with well-groomed sideburns and neatly trimmed beard told the Senate Community Affairs Committee he recently was greeted with a complaint from his barber about how government severely disrupts the lives of people with a mandate to change the time of the clock twice a year.

Steube's barber is not alone. A Rasmussen poll found that 40 percent of Americans think the annual switch to Daylight Saving Time is worthless. And a Smart Access report found it cost the national economy $1.7 billion annually in lost productivity.

Steube is behind the Sunshine Protection Act of 2018. It would put an end to the twice-a-year routine of moving the clock either an hour ahead or an hour behind – something a business magazine calls “humanity’s dumbest ritual of all time.”

The loss of sleep coupled with confusion created by the annual “spring ahead” switch to DST makes kids sick, Steube said. That was one of the things he learned during the discussion that erupted once his barber voiced the complaint.

And people haven't stopped talking to him about it. Steube said since he filed the bill in November, he has been stopped on the street to discuss his efforts. Most folks, he said up to 80 percent, want to squash the need to spring forward every March only to fall back in November.

“It wasn’t my idea at all,” Steube told the committee. “It created a firestorm of its own.”

Right now, just two states — Arizona and Hawaii —don't move their clocks. But it appears to be an idea whose time has come.

Twenty-six states considered making DST permanent last year, according to Time Zone, a group tracking and promoting the effort. It expects 2018 to see similar efforts and is just beginning to compile information for the year.

Florida had an early start for its legislative session and two bills, SB 858 and HB 1013, would make DST permanent. The Senate Bill also would move the state into one time zone, making easier for statewide organizations to do their work, and would bring a uniform closing time for polls on election nights.

DST appears to have originated as a joke by a Founding Father, that old prankster Ben Franklin. In a 1785 column, Franklin mentioned it as a way to save on the cost of candles. By 1907 though, the idea was being taken seriously and a decade later with the outbreak of war, Congress thought if it changed the time on the clock it would reduce the use of energy and cut costs.

The House is using a similar argument to adopt a permanent DST plan. Rep. Jeanette Nunez told a Government Accountability Subcommittee HB 1013 would be good for the economy, save energy and decrease crime.

“Plus, it simplifies things,” said Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen, R-Ft. Myers, a co-sponsor. “We will never have to change (our clocks) back and forth again.”

That change back and forth comes with health and public safety risks, a handful of studies assert.

The American Journal of Cardiology found a 10 percent increase in heart attacks on the Monday and Tuesday after the March weekend shift to DST. The Journal of Applied Psychology found an increase in the number and severity of injuries suffered by miners after the annual switch. And Accident Analysis & Prevention predicts a 13 percent reduction in pedestrian fatalities and 3 percent reduction in vehicular fatalities if the U.S. would stop resetting its clocks twice a year.

Sen. Bill Montford, D- Tallahassee, grew up along the time line in Blountstown. The seat of Calhoun County sits along the Apalachicola River, which divides the panhandle into two time zones, Eastern and Central.

He represents counties in both zones and laughed when it was suggested I-10 becomes a time machine whenever he heads west away from the Capitol. According to the clocks on the wall, Montford can arrive in Jackson County – as he did Thursday night - before he left his Tallahassee office – it’s what happens when you move 60 miles from EST to CST, for a meeting about Chipola Junior College.

“But then it takes you two hours to get back – if you get what I mean,” said Montford, laughing. “That’s what happened last night.”

Montford said he has adapted to living in two time zones. He is the CEO of the Association of District School Superintendents and having members on separate clocks forces some compromises. They’ve had disagreements about when to hold statewide conference calls.

“We like to have them early and schedule them for 8:30 but some people say, ‘that’s not early,’ but it's 7:30 Central," said Montford. “It’s a challenge, sometimes. But it’s a minor challenge compared to some of what we have to face.”

Under federal law, the U.S. Department of Transportation is charged with setting time zones but allows states to exempt themselves from Daylight Saving Time. Both the House and Senate proposals ask Congress to grant Florida the right to pick one time zone for the entire state.

“I am not in favor of putting Central Time people on Eastern time,” said Montford.

Located on the western edge of the Eastern time zone, Tallahassee experiences later sunrises and later sunsets.

The former school superintendent said his main concern about the proposal has to do with children waiting in the dark for their school bus when the clocks fall back.

“This is a far more serious matter than having to reset your clocks,” said Montford. “Children standing on the corner in the dark is dangerous. We have to look at what will the impact on young children be.”

And?

“And West Florida is not moving. That’s what they told me last night in Marianna,” said Montford.

“'Why you picking on West Florida,’ they asked," said Montford. “You want to put the state on one time then pick Central and leave us alone."

Reporter James Call can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com.