Dueling bills address daylight saving time

As New Mexicans set their clocks forward an hour today, two dueling bills being considered in Santa Fe seek to end the practice, one by adopting daylight saving time year round and the other by abstaining from it completely.

On February 19, the House of Representatives narrowly approved House Bill 73, which would exempt New Mexico from daylight saving time, by a 35-32 vote.

If adopted, New Mexico would be two hours behind Texas for about eight months out of the year and remain one hour behind for about four months.

Two days later, the Senate voted 25-17 to pass Senate Bill 226 which would see New Mexico stay in daylight saving time year round.

If approved, New Mexico would remain one hour behind Texas for about eight months and would have the same time as the Lone Star State for about four months during the winter.

Both bills would require federal approval before adoption.

Rep. Phelps Anderson, R-Roswell, told The News Saturday he voted for HB 73 because “New Mexicans are tired of changing their clocks.”

“I think daylight saving time has outlived its time,” Anderson said. “I hear so many say they want to be on the same time all the time so I’m optimistic that one way or another, one bill will make it out at the end of the day.”

Anderson said he would prefer Mountain Standard Time be adopted year-round, “but I could live with either one.”

Rep. Martin Zamora, R-Clovis, who voted against HB 73, said constituent opinions were mixed.

Noting there’s only so much sunlight in a day, Zamora likened HB 73 to “cutting one inch off the rope on top and adding it to the bottom.”

Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, said he heard from about 60 to 70 constituents regarding SB 226, the majority of whom were in favor of year-round daylight saving time.

“The benefits are certainly more time after 5 o’clock for folks to do things with their kids and themselves,” Ingle said.

HB 73 has been sent to the Senate Public Affairs Committee and SB 226 has been sent to the House State Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee.

Ingle and Zamora, who sit on the two committees, respectively, said they were not sure when the bills would be discussed.

Anderson said he expects one of the two bills to receive approval from the Legislature during the final days and hours of the session.

Local residents who go back and forth across the state line were mixed on their preference for daylight saving time.

Scott Jones, who lives in Muleshoe and works as the circulation supervisor at the Clovis library, said he does not have a preference regarding whether daylight saving time is adopted all year or dropped completely.

“I think the only thing I like about living in Texas and working in New Mexico is that you can leave 15 minutes after you’re supposed to be there and you’re 15 minutes early. Either way I just have to adjust,” Jones said.

Mark Carpenter, owner of a Clovis-based plumbing company that also does work across the border in Texas, said he thinks it would be more confusing if one of the bills was adopted and the time difference between New Mexico and Texas was not consistent throughout the year.

Rob Pomper, publisher of the State Line Tribune which publishes in Texico and Farwell, said those who live on the border will be able to adapt no matter what the Legislature decides.

“I’ve grown up here in Farwell and I’ve dealt with the time change all of my life. Whatever New Mexico does the folks in Farwell and Texico will learn to deal with it,” Pomper said. “It’s not going to be earth-shattering.”

Pomper said if he was in charge of New Mexico he would drop daylight saving time and line up with Arizona, but personally he would rather see the Legislature go the other way and adopt it full time so that there would be a portion of the year when New Mexico and Texas were on the same time, due more to personal preference rather than a strong support for daylight saving time.

“Personally I’d prefer to get rid of daylight saving time in general simply because I don’t believe it helps and it ends up costing America a lot more money than it saves,” Pomper said.