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The clock may have run out on repealing Daylight Saving Time in Utah

Posted at 4:50 PM, Nov 03, 2017
and last updated 2017-11-03 18:54:56-04

SALT LAKE CITY — As you set your clock back an hour this weekend, lawmakers are bracing for your complaints.

Daylight Saving Time is surprisingly one of the top issues that lawmakers hear about from their constituents, but so far no bill to stop the back and forth of the clocks has made it through the Utah State Legislature.

And for the first time in years, lawmakers will not have a bill on the issue.

Rep. Norm Thurston, R-Provo, confirmed to FOX 13 on Friday he will not bring back a resolution asking voters to decide whether to end the constant back-and-forth of the clock. His resolution would have put it on the 2018 ballot whether Utah should end Daylight Saving Time. It died relatively quickly in the session earlier this year.

Rep. Thurston’s resolution was the latest in a series of attempts to opt out of the changing of the clocks. A number of state lawmakers have attempted to push a bill through the legislature, but it has never gained any traction.

The Utah House of Representatives has said Daylight Saving Time has always been among the top issues constituents care about in surveys, but lawmakers have made it one of their lowest priorities when grappling with a multi-billion dollar budget and more pressing matters.

The state of Utah even commissioned a study that found widespread public support for ending Daylight Saving Time. If it were to pass, Utah would join Arizona in falling behind and staying behind on the clock. (Springing ahead permanently would require congressional action.)

Rep. Thurston said he would support another lawmaker picking up the issue, but he wasn’t planning on a repeat bill.