Idea - Divide New Mexico between Standard Time and DST (Albuquerque: 2015, house)
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I know there have been proposals last year by an Eastern New Mexico legislator for NM to permanently observe DST, but so far the bill hasn't gone anywhere due to strong opposition in Western NM.
So, as an idea, why not divide the state between Mountain Standard Time and Mountain Daylight Time (aka Central Standard Time).
From a geographic and economic perspective, I would place the following counties in Mountain Standard Time:
Bernalillo
Catron
Cibola
Doña Ana
Grant
Hidalgo
Luna
Los Alamos
McKinley
Rio Arriba
San Juan
Sandoval
Santa Fe
Sierra
Socorro
Torrance
Valencia
The following counties would observe Mountain Daylight Time (Central Standard Time):
Chaves
Colfax
Curry
De Baca
Eddy
Guadalupe
Harding
Lea
Lincoln
Mora
Otero
Quay
Roosevelt
San Miguel
Taos
Union
Dividing states between time zones is not unusual, and this proposal can keep both those in Eastern and Western New Mexico happy. This proposal would be an almost perfect geographic split, although Santa Fe and Torrance Counties would be placed in Mountain Standard Time due to economic ties with Albuquerque.
However, state Senator Cliff Pirtle from Roswell says he will bring back his popular bill to put New Mexico on Daylight Saving Time all year long - no more "spring forward and fall back". The bill passed the state Senate 29 to 10 back in 2015, but time ran out in the legislative session before it could get a vote in the House of Representatives. Senator Pirtle, says he'll start earlier next session and he thinks it will easily pass.
The geographic split is not a solution- the eastern part of the state is no more or less appropriately on central time than the western part. In fact, most of Texas (including Austin and all points west) should be on Mountain time already, based on the longitudes involved.
And you should definitely not conflate mountain daylight time with central standard time just because they sometimes look the same on a wall clock. They are two completely different things. One is what we have now and and one is what is being proposed. There is no "daylight saving time year round" other than a branding exercise.
I'd gladly move us to Central, Eastern, or Hawaii standard time if it meant we could get rid of that stupid clock change. The only people in favor of the biannual clock change are people who are bad at math (it means more daylight for kids, but only when they don't need it, since it gets shut off in the winter).
What folks are missing about this bill is that it wouldn't just eliminate the time change -- it would put NM on CENTRAL time rather than MOUNTAIN time. So, while Arizona has eliminated the clock change and stays on MOUNTAIN standard time all year, NM would be on CENTRAL standard time all year. It just doesn't make any sense, because Texas still changes time. Which means NM will be on the same time as TX half of the year and a different time from everyone else the other half of the year.
If the goal is to be more like Texas (which always seems to be a goal of some of the eastern legislators), just go whole-hog and say you want to just change NM to the Central time zone, DST and all. It would be more honest. Otherwise, with the proposed bill as-is:
From November to March, it would be 10am in Amarillo, 10AM in Albuquerque, 9AM in Denver and 9AM in Phoenix. From March to November, it would be 11AM in Amarillo, 10AM in Albuquerque, 10AM in Denver and 9AM in Phoenix.
It would still have to be approved by the Federal DOT, anyway. And their approval is based on whether the change is necessary for "the convenience of commerce".
It would still have to be approved by the Federal DOT, anyway. And their approval is based on whether the change is necessary for "the convenience of commerce".
Yep, and Albuquerque has stronger economic ties with Arizona than it does with Texas, which is why it makes more sense for the Albuquerque metropolitan area to observe Mountain Standard Time.
Senator Cliff Pirtle is from Roswell, so of course he would favor permanent DST because his part of the state is closer geographically and economically to Texas, thus he introduced the bill for the benefit of Eastern NM while ignoring the interests of the western part of the state.
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