Representative Lyle Larson, of San Antonio, says it’s time (no pun intended) for Texas voters to decide the fate of daylight saving time. In a 133 to 9 vote, the Texas House gave the okay to a proposed constitutional amendment which is required to place the question of time on the November 5 election ballot. As a result, House Joint Resolution 117 will now go to the Senate. It proposes that Texans could determine whether the state should be exempt from daylight saving time altogether or observe it permanently.
Based on this most recent move, Texas voters would be asked to make a decision per the following language: “The constitutional amendment authorizing the state to conduct a statewide referendum to allow the voters to choose between exempting the state from daylight saving time year-round and authorizing the legislature to enact legislation that gives effect to the option preferred by a majority of the voters voting in the statewide referendum.”
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Approval of the Texas Hill Country representative’s plan would see an end to changing the clocks twice yearly. Although the vote would not allow for there to be an option of continuing the current system, a voter who likes the time change each year could vote against the constitutional amendment. According to Larson, there have been 21 prior legislative attempts to end daylight saving time. The failure, he said, was often linked to the choice of which time to select – standard or DST.
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The only caveat to the time selection is that by federal law, congressional approval is required for Texas to have daylight saving time year-round. However, Larson said that a pending action in Congress would remove that requirement. In the meantime, he has noted there are some strong opinions regarding which time to choose if this makes the November election ballot. Parent groups and elderly voters have been noted by Larson as pro standard time, while those into evening recreation are pro daylight saving time. “I’m agnostic,” he told statesman.com. “Pick standard or pick daylight. We’ll all adjust. But it’s idiotic for a society as modern as we are that we continue to switch our clocks to try to gain an advantage. It’s the same amount of daylight. Let’s quit switching the clocks.” The measure now requires two-thirds of the Texas Senate vote to make the ballot on November 5, 2019.
