Excited About the Time Change? Here’s Why Most of Indiana Didn’t Change Its Clocks Until 2006

Clocks go back an hour early Sunday, so enjoy the extra sleep.

For decades, most of Indiana skipped the whole routine, and the reasons are vast.

Here’s the story of how Indiana stayed put for so long, and the vote that finally got Hoosiers to spring forward.

Early 1970s Exemption

Indiana’s clocks stayed on standard time year-round in 77 of its 92 counties, the Associated Press (AP) reported in 2005.

If you lived in any of those counties, your clocks stayed put all year.

The arrangement dated to state and federal laws passed in the early 1970s.

It lasted more than three decades for those counties.

In short, laws from the early 1970s let most Eastern-zone counties skip the change, and repeated opposition in the legislature kept a statewide change from passing until 2005.

Split-Zone Rule

Under federal law, clocks go back at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of November, and the same law lets states opt out.

If a state sits in more than one time zone, a split observance is permitted.

That let Indiana’s Central-zone counties change their clocks while most Eastern-zone counties stayed on standard time.

If you lived in a Central-zone county, your clocks changed with the seasons.

In the Eastern zone, the same rule usually left your clocks alone.

Rural Resistance

Indiana Public Media says the legislature debated daylight saving time in the 1940s and 1950s, when rural representatives opposed it as an unnatural measure that could unsettle cows.

That was well before the early 1970s laws.

In 2005, the AP reported that efforts to adopt daylight saving time statewide had failed more than two dozen times.

Opponents said their constituents opposed the change and doubted it would help the economy.

That record helps explain why your clocks stayed put for so long if you lived in one of those 77 counties.

Time Zone Line

Most Indiana counties stayed on standard time because the time zone line left them in the Eastern zone.

In 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission moved the eastern half of the state into the Eastern zone.

A 1969 order took effect April 27 and put every county in the Eastern zone except six in the northwest and six in the southwest.

In 1977, Pike County’s commissioners petitioned the Department of Transportation (DOT) to join the Eastern zone, and DOT moved the county.

In 1985, the Indiana General Assembly asked DOT to move the five remaining southwest counties east.

DOT said no.

Separate 1986 requests from the Jasper County and Starke County commissioners got the same answer.

In 1991, after another request from the Starke County commissioners, DOT moved that county east, only to move it back to the Central zone in 2006.

If you lived in one of those Central-zone counties, DOT’s answer meant your clocks kept changing every year.

Most Eastern-zone counties stayed on Eastern Standard Time all year, which put them on the same clock time as Central Daylight Time in summer.

Delay to April 2006

The bill that brought daylight saving time to all of Indiana originally called for a June 5 start.

In April 2005, the Indiana House approved an amendment 52 to 45 that moved the first change to April 2006.

The House rejected another amendment that would have put the issue to a referendum.

Representative Dale Grubb, who sponsored the amendment, argued that a June start would leave people confused.

If you lived in one of the 77 counties on standard time, that amendment gave you extra months before your first clock change.

The 2005 House Vote

Governor Mitch Daniels had lobbied for the bill to bring daylight saving time to all of Indiana, the AP reported.

Businesses backing it pointed to confusion over airline flights, delivery times and conference calls.

The House first voted 49 to 48 against the bill, which wasn't enough to kill it, since defeating a bill takes 51 votes.

Representative Troy Woodruff then switched sides to provide the 51st vote, and the House passed it 51 to 46.

Woodruff said he changed his vote because the issue had become too partisan, and House Speaker Brian Bosma praised the vote.

If you lived in a county that skipped the change, that vote moved you a step closer to your first clock change.

The bill also required Daniels and the General Assembly to petition DOT about moving more counties into the Central zone.