The times they aren’t a-changing.
Lawmakers voted Tuesday against a bill that could have let Utahns forget about whether it was daylight saving time or not, saying they didn’t want to put the state on a peninsula surrounded by states that fall back in November and spring forward in March.
SCR5 would have asked Congress to let the state move ahead an hour and stay there.
“If we move to Central time zone and the rest of the states around us continue ... eight months of the year Denver, Boise, Albuquerque would be on the same time zone as we are,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville. “This opts us out so we don’t change clocks, which is the No. 1 thing I’m hearing.”
If Congress allowed states to choose their times for themselves, Utah would have gotten rid of daylight saving time under the bill.
SCR5 comes amid a push in dozens of states, where lawmakers have proposed adopting a single time zone for the entire year. Arizona and Hawaii are the only states that don’t change their times.
Lawmakers on the committee didn’t like the idea of sticking out from surrounding states.
“It puts us two hours out of whack with Nevada,” Sen. Don Ipson, R-St. George. “Try to run a business on that.”
The state has studied the issue in recent years and found residents are largely supportive of the change.
Follow @taylorwanderson