Could anyone be against protecting sunshine? In Florida, of all places? A bill passed by the Legislature dubbed the "Sunshine Protection Act" would ask Congress to extend daylight saving time in this state year-round, spurring images of backyard barbecues and impromptu beach trips every day of the year. But there's a dark side to this sunny idea. Gov. Rick Scott should veto the bill, and if he signs it into law Congress should ignore the request.
The legislation seeks to have Congress allow the Sunshine State to move from Eastern Standard Time for part of the year to Daylight Saving Time year-round. Sen. Marco Rubio has already filed legislation to let Florida move off the schedule observed by all but two other states. But making Florida an outlier would cause too many complications and carry a significant downside for every potential benefit.
Yes, kids would have more time to spend outdoors in the evenings. They'd also be going to school in the dark. In January, sunrise would be as late as 8:22 a.m. Restaurants could see a benefit with people more inclined to go out when there's still some sunlight. But other industries would suffer, such as construction businesses that start the day on the job site at 7 a.m. Some proponents say the roads would be safer in the evenings — but this would be offset by more dangerous conditions in the mornings.
Perhaps most disruptive of all would be the impact on interstate business and travel. Florida would be out of sync even with states in the Eastern time zone. The stock markets would open at 10:30 a.m. here, and companies on the Pacific Coast would be four hours behind for part of the year. A flight that leaves Tampa bound for New York or Washington would land in a different time zone. The mind reels at planning a trip or conducting business when Florida is an hour ahead of everyone else on the Atlantic Coast. And forget about staying up for late Tampa Bay Lightning games.
Sen. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, said he filed the bill after his barber lamented to him about the effect of the time change on young children. Steube told the Times/Herald Tallahassee bureau that he has been blown away by the response. "I can't tell you how many people have come up to me who have said even my high school-age kid, it's hard to get him up in the morning when we fall back the clocks."
There's just one problem. Steube has it backward. Many people have difficulty waking up for school and work on time when the clocks spring forward. That's when we lose an hour and have to wake up in the dark. What else did lawmakers fail to consider when they jumped on this bill that sounds good but isn't?
Benjamin Franklin favored a schedule akin to daylight saving as a way to save candle wax. Twenty-first century Floridians might spare a few light bulbs on year-round daylight saving time, but that hardly justifies such a disruptive change. If Scott doesn't veto the bill, Rubio should withdraw his and push the other one he filed, which would move the whole country to a single time standard, if he really wants to play with time. An old Florida slogan declared the rules are different here. But time shouldn't be different than it is along the rest of the Atlantic Coast.
