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Utahns should be able to vote on non-binding ballot measures that would guide lawmakers in future policy decisions, according to a House committee.
The House Government Operations Committee endorsed HB78 on an 8-1 vote Friday, and sent it to the full House.
Rep. Norm Thurston, R-Provo, is sponsoring HB78 and also is running a separate resolution, HJR2, that would put a question about daylight saving time on the ballot. Most debate Friday was about that measure — asking voters whether Utah should keep Mountain Standard Time all year, as Arizona does. But the committee did not vote on it.
Thurston said the issue is debated every year. but the issue remains unresolved.
"It is not a trivial issue," he said, adding that numerous studies show daylight saving time does such things as increase auto accidents, strokes, work accidents, depression, suicide and sleepiness.
Emily Wagner, who has a daughter with severe epilepsy, said it is hard for people with special needs to adapt twice a year. "Yes, I can adapt. But my daughter, it takes her weeks if not months to adapt to her seizure medicine" and the seizures increase dramatically.
But representatives of golf courses and farmers opposed any change, saying an extra hour of daylight during summer helps their industries.
A legislative-ordered study in 2014 held several hearings, huddled with key industries and conducted a nonscientific online survey that attracted 27,000 responses.
Participants' lengthy and passionate comments in the survey amounted to 574,000 words — nearly the number in the famously long novel, "War and Peace."
In the final tally, 67 percent of respondents favored keeping Mountain Standard Time all year.