The issue that just won't die:
The long-running debate over which time zones Hoosiers should observe got more complicated Wednesday when an Indiana House committee approved a bill to let voters choose their county's time zone through referendums.
House Bill 1047 would let residents of counties that border the Eastern-Central time zone boundary to put the issue to a vote.
If the county wasn't already observing the time zone that won the referendum, then the county's Board of Commissioners would be required to petition the federal government to be relocated to the new time zone. The commissioners also would have to request that the governor join in that county's request for realignment, though the U.S. Department of Transportation still would have the final say.
I suspect I'll be accused of being anti-democratic, but what's the point of authorizing referendums that are meaningless? Isn't that a way to breed cynicism rather than foster a community spirit? No matter what input the DOT gets from voters, commissioners and the governor's office, it will make time-zone decisions based on patterns of activity, as it always has and as it should. Time zones interconnect across the country, so it is a national, not local, issue. Perhaps the fact that a majority of county residents want to be in a certain time zone would be indicative of their activity, but it is no substitute of the plain evidence of where they shop, work, seek entertainment, etc.
