Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
STAFF WRITER
The change to daylight saving time takes place again at 2 a.m. Sunday, but New Mexico may not be observing time changes for much longer if one New Mexico senator has his way.
In a recent press release, Sen. Cliff Pirtle, R-Roswell, announced plans to re-introduce a bill in the next legislative session that will stop the practice of changing clocks and make daylight saving time permanent.
Pirtle, known as “Father Time” due to his championing of daylight saving time, has introduced several bills through the years that would do away with time changes in New Mexico. His time bill passed the Senate in 2015, but time ran out before it made it to the House for debate.
Yes, time, ironically, was likely a factor that kept the bill from passing, according to Rep. Randal Crowder, R-Clovis.
“I don’t recall that that bill started very early in the session. It seemed like it kind of came to life about mid-session or so,” he said.
Crowder said he has had more calls relatedto time change than any other issue.
“Primarily, the calls I get want to just stay with Mountain Standard Time or daylight saving time (Mountain Daylight Time) and not flip-flop back and forth. Most of the folks on the east side of the state would prefer that we just set it at Mountain Standard Time and leave it be,” Crowder said. “I do believe the folks on the western side of the state would probably prefer daylight saving time.”
Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, said he has noticed a preference in time change as well.
“Most of the folks that talk to me about it just say that they would like to be one or the other, but most of them favor daylight saving time,” he said. “It gives them a little more (daylight) after 5 p.m., which is the normal work cut-off time.”
Most states observe the time change to and from daylight saving time with the exceptions being most of the state of Arizona and all of Hawaii.
New Mexico is not the only state where politicians are proposing to do away with time change.
Assemblyman Kansen Chu of California recently introduced a bill that would see his state observe Pacific Standard Time all year round, according to an article by the San Jose Mercury News.
