DENVER—Seems like some Colorado lawmakers would’ve appreciated getting some extra sleep last Sunday when the clocks sprang forward by an hour.
A proposal from Republican Sen. Greg Brophy is making its way through the Legislature to keep Colorado on daylight savings time year-round. Brophy’s bill got its first approval in committee Wednesday and is one step closer to a vote in the full Senate.
Brophy, a corn and watermelon farmer from Yuma County, said he doesn’t mind switching the clocks back an hour in the fall.
“It’s actually kind of nice, but you give up your evening sunlight,” he said. “But the spring one … just hurts! I mean, I’m tired, it’s hard on kids, it’s hard on everybody.”
Senate Bill 22 would cost about $9,472 to implement because of programming costs by the state Department of Revenue to make the change permanent. Daylight savings runs from second the Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, when clocks are moved back an hour.
Hawaii and most of Arizona are the only places that don’t participate in daylight savings.
Brophy said he got the idea for the bill after starting a popular conversation on Facebook last year. He commented on how much he hated changing the time on his clocks twice a year and said he got 50 responses from people agreeing.
Last month, a House committee rejected a proposal to keep Colorado on U.S. Mountain Standard Time and repeal daylight savings time. The bill sponsor, Democratic Rep. Edward Vigil, said at the time he was proposing the bill on behalf of children, working mothers and others “who just can’t deal with daylight savings.”
