North Idaho looks to keep time in sync with Washington

BOISE – If SB 1267 becomes law, northern and southern Idaho could eventually be in the same time zone four months of year, from November to early March.

Currently, southern Idaho is on Mountain time, while northern Idaho is on Pacific time, an hour earlier. The dividing line is “Time Zone Bridge” in Riggins.

“I have worked with legislators in both Washington and Oregon on this issue,” said Sen. Steve Vick, R-Dalton Gardens, who presented the bill to the Senate State Affairs Committee on Friday morning. The panel approved it unanimously, sending it to the full Senate.

The bill says if the state of Washington moves to daylight saving time year-round, which its Legislature already has voted to do, the parts of northern Idaho on Pacific time would do the same.

Vick said 60,000 cars a day cross the border between Kootenai County and Spokane County – the same number that pass daily between Ada and Canyon counties.

“It’d be very difficult for us to be in a different time zone than Spokane,” Vick said. “You can imagine what it’d be like here, if Canyon County was in a different time zone than Ada County.”

“The purpose of this legislation is to just make sure that when they do switch, which I believe they will, that we switch at the same time,” Vick said.

“I think we’re really close,” he said. “I would love to be on daylight saving time year-round. Where we live in North Idaho it works really well for us; we don’t ever have a very late sunrise. … And it works well in the summer.”

Vick noted that he made sure in his bill not to change anything with regard to the rest of the state.

“I very deliberately left the southern part of the state off of this, because I know there’s been bills in both directions, to move to standard time and to move to year-round daylight saving time,” he said, “and they both failed.”

One proposal, from Rep. Christy Zito, R-Hammett, to exempt Idaho from switching over to daylight saving time was killed earlier this session, as was a similar proposal last year. Zito argued that changing clocks seasonally created health and safety issues.

“In 2019, both Washington and Oregon legislatures passed bills to move their states to daylight savings time year-round,” Vick said. “Washington’s is dependent on Oregon, Oregon is dependent on Washington and California. So in the spirit of cooperation, I made mine dependent on Washington.”

Vick said states can move to year-round standard time on their own, but to move to year-round daylight saving time, they need congressional approval.

“This change would only happen if Congress approves it,” he said.

Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise, asked Vick, amid laughter, “This isn’t the first step in trying to secede from the rest of Idaho, is it?”

Vick said no.

“For those of us in North Idaho, this also benefits, because for much of the legislative session, we would actually be in the same time zone, which would be helpful,” he said.

This year, daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m. March 8, when clocks will “spring forward.” That means sunrise and sunset will be an hour later, leaving more light in the evening hours. It ends on the first Sunday in November, when clocks will “fall back” one hour.

Vick said he’d spoken with all seven Idaho senators who represent districts in the Pacific time zone, and all of them “agree that this is a good bill.”

To become law, SB 1267 still needs passage in the full House and Senate and the governor’s signature; and for the change to happen, Congress would have to approve.