Should Idaho scrap daylight saving time?

Idaho House legislative leaders have introduced legislation exempting the state from observing daylight saving time.

The House Ways and Means Committee, made up of exclusively legislative leadership, voted 4-2 to advance the bill on Wednesday.

Prior attempts to pass legislation eliminating Idaho’s daylight saving time – usually advocated by farmers and agricultural representatives – have failed.

Under the bill, Idaho’s two time zones would cease taking part in daylight saving time on July 1. This means that the southern half of the state could face a two-hour time difference with states like Washington and Oregon roughly six months out of the year.

It was not immediately clear if the either of the two time zones could opt out of the exemption.

We asked some Idahoans what they thought of the proposal.

Josh Wise said daylight saving time is almost an afterthought.

“Time’s kind of an arbitrary thing,” Wise said. “We created it just to suit our needs, so if it changes or if it doesn’t, it doesn’t really matter a whole lot to me.”

Scott Fisher, on the other hand, thinks it’s just a pain.

“Being a hunter, the fall time-change makes me get up an hour earlier,” Fisher said. “It messes with the work schedule and everything else.”

Lauren Duman wondered if this is really the Legislature’s biggest problem right now.

“There’s a lot of problems in our world,” Duman said. “Why are they taking time out of their day to fix this one?”

There is some precedent to scrapping daylight saving time. Hawaii and Arizona do not observe it.

“Arizona’s a lot more populated state than Idaho is,” Fisher said. “So if it works for them, why not us?”