SB 6-ELIMINATE DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME  8:53:50 AM CHAIR LYNN announced that the next order of business would be CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 6(FIN) "An Act exempting the state from daylight saving time; petitioning the United States Department of Transportation to change the time zones of Alaska; and providing for an effective date." CHAIR LYNN explained the bill was heard last year, it was assigned to a subcommittee, and after hearing testimony from the sponsor's office, the chair of the subcommittee would present a report. 8:54:49 AM ERIN SHINE, Staff, Senator Anna MacKinnon, Alaska State Legislature, on behalf of Senator MacKinnon, prime sponsor, related that SB 6 is Senator MacKinnon's second attempt in trying to eliminate daylight saving time. There have been multiple changes to the bill, and staff worked with the chair of the subcommittee on the version before the committee, she said. 8:55:38 AM REPRESENTATIVE KELLER, as chair of the aforementioned subcommittee, reported that the subcommittee met during special session and came up with an elegant compromise, because businesses had expressed concern in moving to daylight saving time in that the daylight hours are critical for economics. He explained the compromise of the committee substitute is that the bill is switched around and now the primary intent of the bill is to request that the U.S. Department of Transportation move all of Alaska onto Pacific Standard Time, which is the same time as Seattle, Washington. 8:56:35 AM REPRESENTATIVE KELLER, with regard to the second part of the bill, explained that if the U.S. Department of Transportation does put Alaska on Pacific Standard Time, Alaska would eliminate daylight saving time. He described it as a compromise in that daylight saving time would go away, but only if Alaska's time was the same as that of Seattle. The U.S. Department of Transportation's web site lists its criteria as being for economic and commercial reasons. Clearly, he pointed out, there is a commercial benefit to Alaskans, because the sunshine hours in Alaska change so fast, there are little sunshine hours or a lot of sunshine depending upon the location. CHAIR LYNN verified that the above compromise is in a committee substitute. 8:58:01 AM REPRESENTATIVE STUTES surmised that if the U.S. Department of Transportation chooses not to put Alaska on Pacific Standard Time, then this bill would not be effective. REPRESENTATIVE KELLER answered that it would be effective in the sense that Alaska has asked for Pacific Standard Time, but Representative Stutes is correct in that daylight saving time would never come into play if the U.S. Department of Transportation does not put Alaska on Pacific Standard Time. 8:58:26 AM REPRESENTATIVE SPOHNHOLZ said she noticed that the business community was not in support of the original bill, and asked whether it has responded since that time with any additional information. REPRESENTATIVE KELLER replied that it is subjective in that there was a subcommittee public hearing and business entities were present and interested. Frankly, he said, he has heard from only one person with concerns, but there was not an official poll. REPRESENTATIVE STUTES asked whether this transaction would happen in tandem, such that Alaska would not go off daylight saving time without being put on Pacific Standard Time. She clarified she wants to ascertain that Alaska won't move and then be told to wait for a response from the U.S. Department of Transportation. REPRESENTATIVE KELLER agreed that Representative Stutes is exactly correct; the intent here is that there is no action on daylight saving time unless the U.S. Department of Transportation chooses to put Alaska on Pacific Standard Time. He opined there is no option, no choice; Alaska would never go on daylight saving time under this bill. REPRESENTATIVE STUTES verified that this would affect the entire State of Alaska and everyone would be on the same time zone. CHAIR LYNN replied that whatever time zone the state is on, it would be the same. 9:00:05 AM REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS asked about the batting average has been for U.S. Department of Transportation petitions to change time zones. MS. SHINE offered that within the last 20 years, it has been done once when the State of Indiana petitioned to change its time zone when it adopted daylight saving time. There is potentially a precedent when changing daylight saving time and petitioning the U.S. Department of Transportation, she added. REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS surmised that there had been one petition that was accepted. MS. SHINE noted she attempted to call the U.S. Department of Transportation yesterday, but no one from the department returned her call to clarify. She offered her understanding that the one petition was accepted and it did go through the process. 9:01:37 AM REPRESENTATIVE KELLER moved to adopt the House committee substitute (HCS) for CSSB 6(FIN), labeled 29-LS0111\G, Shutts, 1/21/16, as the working document. There being no objection, Version G was before the committee as the working document. REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS asked, in terms of the physics of earth and daylight, the differential between actual daylight and what Alaska's time zone would be for Western Alaska if all of Alaska were to successfully petition the U.S. Department of Transportation to become part of Pacific Standard Time. MS. SHINE responded that if this bill went into effect and Alaska received a favorable decision from the U.S. Department of Transportation to move the entire state to Pacific Standard Time as Alaska's standard time, this would be the state's time zone. She explained, that in March, Alaska went to daylight saving time "and this would then be our standard time when the rest of the states, there would be 47 that would fall off of daylight saving time. They would shift back and we would stay on." Therefore, she said, it would be one hour of daylight in the evening rather than in the morning. REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS followed up that across the world there are time zones that generally correlate with daylight hours. He pointed to Unalaska and asked, if all of Alaska were to successfully move to Pacific Standard Time (PST), what the time zone differential would be for the far western extremes of Alaska. MS. SHINE explained that previously, Alaska had four time zones and it consolidated time zones in the early 1980s. When determining the zenith of sun times, sun at high noon at each point in Alaska, the state would probably have five time zone. Therefore, far Western and Northern Alaska will be potentially three or four hours off of their sun time. A counter-argument to being off their sun time is the rate in which daylight is lost and gained, and she offered to pass a chart to the committee depicting lost and gained daylight. 9:04:55 AM REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS asked Ms. Shine whether she had a sense of other parts of the world where there may be such a great differential between sun time and time zone. CHAIR LYNN used the example of Russia. MS. SHINE remarked she does not have research as to how other countries have consolidated their time zones potentially into one that would span three or four hours, but she will look into it and get back to the committee. 9:05:28 AM REPRESENTATIVE VAZQUEZ asked the current number of time zones in Alaska. MS. SHINE answered that there are two time zones. She related that the Aleutian Islands are on the Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time Zone. REPRESENTATIVE VAZQUEZ requested information as to how this bill would affect those two time zones. MS. SHINE responded they would move forward two hours under the committee substitute. REPRESENTATIVE VAZQUEZ asked whether she was speaking about the Aleutian Islands. MS. SHINE answered that is correct. REPRESENTATIVE VAZQUEZ surmised that in moving forward with the committee substitute, it would add one hour of daylight during the evening, which would be one hour less of daylight in the morning. MS. SHINE agreed. She added that it would only be for the five months in which the state currently goes back to its standard time. Under this bill, she explained, if Alaska received a favorable decision from the U.S. Department of Transportation, "Alaska would shift to this time zone, and when the rest of the United States shifted back, we would stay." Therefore, she further explained, Alaska would have an hour of daylight in the afternoon and not in the morning. 9:07:13 AM REPRESENTATIVE VAZQUEZ asked for clarification that there would be one more hour of daylight throughout the year or just partially throughout the year. MS. SHINE answered that it would be throughout the year, but she clarified that Alaska would be shifting forward, which would be the state's new standard time. The hour would be at the end of the day but, she reiterated, the state would lose and gain daylight at quite a rapid rate in different areas throughout the state. 9:07:51 AM REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS suggested exempting the Hawaii- Aleutian Standard Time from also being shifted two hours, so basically there would be just be a constant shift for all time zones rather than that time zone being shifted two hours. He asked whether the author of the committee substitute had thoughts on his idea. REPRESENTATIVE KELLER responded that the committee should hear from the sponsor of the bill. He opined that Alaskans would be most affected with regard to commerce and interactions outside of Alaska. MS. SHINE pointed out that the first version of trying to petition the U.S. Department of Transportation included language stating "all or part of the state." Thereby, giving the U.S. Department of Transportation discretion in possibly moving part of the state into Pacific Standard Time (PST). She opined that this language was included because the sponsor's office had heard from Southeast Alaska, such that in the 1980s, when Alaska consolidated to two time zones, Southeast Alaska felt it had already given up its hour because it was essentially on Pacific Standard Time. She noted there are concerns with all of the daylight being in the morning and not in the afternoon, and concerns with commerce in that if Southeast Alaska were to move forward and the road system stayed on Alaska Standard Time, might renew a conversation, in the 1980s, of a potential capitol move. She said that she has a history of time zones in Alaska pointing to that issue. The sponsor did, at one point, have all or part of the state give discretion on how the U.S. Department of Transportation would draw the time zone lines within the state, which could end up having two or three time zones, she said. 9:10:22 AM REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS clarified that he is interested in honoring the existing time zone differential with two time zones. It appears that the consequence of the committee substitute would be to further consolidate Alaska into one time zone perhaps to the detriment of the Aleutian Islands. He said he would like to know what the people living on the Aleutian Islands think about this proposal. MS. SHINE explained that it is the process of the U.S. Department of Transportation to hold hearings throughout the state and hear from individuals and communities regarding the time zone question. It would take into consideration how those in the far reaching Aleutian Islands, as well as the people living as far north as Barrow, would be affected. The U.S. Department of Transportation would then make a recommendation whether to change Alaska's time zones. She opined there are some communities that prefer to be in one time zone with the entirety of Alaska, and others communities believe they could live in their own time zone and it wouldn't affect them. CHAIR LYNN related that he would like to see all of Alaska in one time zone, whatever it may be. 9:11:51 AM The committee took a brief at ease. 9:12:57 AM REPRESENTATIVE VAZQUEZ observed an amendment was available that would provide another trigger point. 9:14:35 AM REPRESENTATIVE VAZQUEZ moved to adopt Conceptual Amendment 1, which read as follows: Page 2, line 9 Delete "on or before January 1, 2027" Insert "after twenty-five states enact state law exempting the state from 15 U.S.C. 260(a)" CHAIR LYNN surmised there would be 25 or 26 states. REPRESENTATIVE VAZQUEZ clarified that 25 states would have to opt out. 9:14:49 AM REPRESENTATIVE KELLER objected for purposes of discussion, and advised he would like to hear from the sponsor. 9:16:22 AM MS. SHINE opined that the intent [of SB 6] is that Alaska be more uniform with at least half of the states. Currently, the states of Hawaii and Arizona have exempted themselves from 15 U.S.C. 260(a), and she added that research from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) last year indicates there were 19 states considering some form of either eliminating or adopting daylight saving time. The State of Arizona continues to introduce the legislation to be uniform with its surrounding states. She related that it is one more trigger with one more hurdle, Senator MacKinnon is concerned about health issues with the switching of daylight saving time going on and off, which she spoke to last year. 9:16:16 AM CHAIR LYNN asked whether the sponsor supports Conceptual Amendment 1. MS. SHINE answered that she would be cautious in including something along these lines, because it would be one more hurdle for the state to get away from (indisc.) the switching of daylight saving time. She expressed an unwillingness to say whether Senator MacKinnon did or did not support Conceptual Amendment 1 without first speaking with her. REPRESENTATIVE STUTES asked how many states opted out currently. MS. SHINE reiterated that the states of Arizona and Hawaii have opted out. 9:17:16 AM REPRESENTATIVE TALERICO commented that he sees Conceptual Amendment 1 as a substantial stumbling block in connecting Alaska with the states of Washington, Oregon, and California in a time zone. He then referred to the issue of advancing telemedicine and distance delivery education, and making [telemedicine] uniform throughout the State of Alaska. Particularly, connecting with the West Coast, which has huge advantages plus educational benefits, he pointed out. He asked whether this might be a substantial delay in order for the legislature to continue advancing that technology "that we're all pretty connected with?" REPRESENTATIVE VAZQUEZ emphasized it would not. She explained that the Conceptual Amendment 1 would remove the timeframe "on or before January 1, 2025" and provides another trigger point - another mechanism if 25 states or more opt out. 9:18:37 AM CHAIR LYNN asked Representative Vazquez to define "trigger point." REPRESENTATIVE VAZQUEZ indicated it is the opting out of 25 states from daylight saving time. She continued that this provides more flexibility, because it would not necessarily rely on the U.S. Department of Transportation, rather it would rely on what 25 states or more may be doing as far as exempting themselves. CHAIR LYNN surmised that would potentially make it difficult to do away with daylight saving time. REPRESENTATIVE VAZQUEZ opined it would just provide an alternative; it would not necessarily make it more difficult. 9:19:45 AM REPRESENTATIVE KELLER maintained his objection to Conceptual Amendment 1. 9:20:35 AM A roll call vote was taken. Representative Vasquez voted in favor of the motion to adopt Conceptual Amendment 1. Representatives Talerico, Stutes, Keller, Spohnholz, Kreiss- Tomkins, and Lynn voted against it. Therefore, Conceptual Amendment 1 failed to be adopted by a vote of 1-6. 9:21:15 AM REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS introduced Conceptual Amendment 2, and referred to the previous discussion of a standard shifting of time zones, specifically the Aleutian Islands. He turned to SB 6, Version G, page 2, line 8, after the word "state," insert "currently within Alaska Standard Time". [The committee treated Conceptual Amendment 2 as having been moved to be adopted.] REPRESENTATIVE KELLER objected for discussion, and questioned whether Conceptual Amendment 2 would put people on the Aleutian Islands in a position that they have no option. REPRESENTATIVE KELLER explained the U.S. Department of Transportation will heed the interests of the people in those communities as part of the process. He asked whether Conceptual Amendment 2 would set it up so that the U.S. Department of Transportation would have only one option, to change the portion of Alaska in one time zone now. Thereby, he continued, the U.S. Department of Transportation would not even have the option of changing those communities in Alaska that are on Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time; Conceptual Amendment 2 appears to be limiting. He stated he does not mind making it permissive, but he doesn't want to put it in a box. Possibly, he said, it appears Conceptual Amendment 2 is a limiting amendment in that it would prevent them from being part of Alaska. 9:23:38 AM REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS answered that the committee substitute places "all of the state within the Pacific Standard Time Zone," and it appears the legislation takes agency away from those in the far west and taking them even farther away from sunlight time. This would standardize any transition, he said. Currently, there are two time zones and both would be shifted proportionally one hour toward Pacific Standard Time. The intent, he explained is that while most of Alaska is shifting one hour toward Pacific Standard Time, those on Hawaii- Aleutian Standard Time would just shift one hour, rather than shifting two hours. 9:24:49 AM REPRESENTATIVE KELLER said he would like to hear from the sponsor. CHAIR LYNN asked Representative Kreiss-Tompkins to restate Conceptual Amendment 2. REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS restated the wording of Conceptual Amendment 2. MS. SHINE surmised that consolidating to one time zone Conceptual Amendment 2 would give the option to Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time of shifting one hour rather than two hours. She suggested the language that "places all of the state within the Pacific Standard Time" could read "all or part of the state". She offered concern in "making the current two time zones have those hard lines stay." In the event, the Aleutian Islands do want to be part of the Pacific Standard Time Zone through the U.S. Department of Transportation community meetings, this language would potentially prohibit them. She opined that open language, in the U.S. Department of Transportation petition, allows the U.S. Department of Transportation to hold those community meetings, and allows the voices of the communities to be heard when considering drawing those lines. She reiterated adding "all or part of the state" to address possible concern about making the entire state change to Pacific Standard Time. 9:27:05 AM REPRESENTATIVE KELLER noted that the drafter from Legislative Legal and Research Services was available online. REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS said that Ms. Shine is familiar with the subject matter, and, presumably, had many conversations over the last year with people across Alaska. He asked the sentiment of the people in the Aleutian Islands. Based upon Ms. Shine's suggestion, he said he wondered "if we were to incorporate that, if that might inadvertently open the door for time zone boundaries changing beyond what they are now," potentially parts of Alaska, such as Dillingham, Bethel, or Anchorage getting Balkanized into a different time zone. 9:28:21 AM MS. SHINE agreed that she has had many conversations and would review her log as to whether her conversations were specifically with anyone on the Aleutian Islands. She said she will get back to the committee with that information. REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS referred to Conceptual Amendment 2 and noted the committee did not know which communities had spoken out on this issue; which could guide the committee. He said that Version G appears to put communities in a box and take away their prerogative to maintain their current relationship with daylight. Whereas, he continued, Conceptual Amendment 2 would take a more conservative approach in maintaining the status quo and effecting a one hour shift rather than a two-hour shift. 9:30:05 AM REPRESENTATIVE KELLER maintained his objection to Conceptual Amendment 2. He asked that Ms. Susie Shutts, from Legislative Legal and Research Services, enlighten the committee. He referred to Version G, and reviewed that Conceptual Amendment 2 would insert the words on page 2, line 8, after the word "state" insert "currently within the Alaska Time Zone" and opined it is tied to how that fits with page 2 line 2, where the language is "all of the state." 9:31:06 AM SUSIE SHUTTS, Attorney, Legislative Legal Counsel, Legislative Legal and Research Services, Legislative Affairs Agency (LAA), pointed out that if a change is made on page 2, line 8, the corresponding change would need to be made to page 2, line 2 to indicate that the legislature would be petitioning the U.S. Department of Transportation to move that same portion of the state. Also, she opined the committee might want to consider whether it would want to make a change to page 2, line 12, but at least it would seem that there should be a mirroring of what the legislature is petitioning the U.S. Department of Transportation to move and what is contemplated that will be moved under page 2, line 8. 9:32:22M REPRESENTATIVE KELLER maintained his objection. REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS withdrew his motion to adopt Conceptual Amendment 2. He said there may be necessary mirroring language to gracefully effect what he intends, which is not to consolidate the current two time zones in Alaska into one time zone. 9:33:32 AM REPRESENTATIVE KELLER moved to report HCS CSSB 6(FIN), Version G, out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. There being no objection, HCS CSSB 6(STA) was reported out of the House State Affairs Standing Committee.