SALT LAKE CITY — It is consistently (and strangely) one of the top gripes lawmakers hear about from their constituents.
The constant back-and-forth of the clocks with Daylight Saving Time. This year, Sen. Dan McCay is proposing to move to "Mountain Daylight Time" and stay there.
"We’re going to spring and stay sprung," he told reporters on Friday.
Sen. McCay, R-Riverton, has filed Senate Bill 175, which puts the state on a constant time and stay there. The Utah State Legislature previously passed a bill to drop Daylight Saving Time, once five other states agreed to.
It hasn't happened.
"My constituents are notedly impatient," Sen. McCay said.
Despite being a constant gripe of the public, the Daylight Saving Time bills are actually a very low priority for the Utah State Legislature, which grapples with a multi-billion dollar budget and more pressing issues. Constituents also can't agree on "lighter later" or "darker earlier."
"Every year I’ve put it in a survey and asked people. Our constituency, at least my constituency, is split on the issue," said Senate Majority Whip Ann Millner, R-Ogden. "It makes it more difficult for us to move one way or the other when there’s so much split in the groups we represent."
But if Utah decides to truly "spring ahead and stay ahead," it may still require approval from the United States Congress and even Sen. McCay acknowledged that wasn't something he had hope for.
"The last I checked, Congress isn’t very functional. Getting them to agree on anything at this point? They’re good at two things, expressing outrage or doing nothing," he said.
