Editorial

With only 90-days to conduct the public’s business, we never cease to be amazed at the bills that attract consideration by our state legislators.

In the, “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it,” category comes SB 6 and a companion bill HB 64 that proposes to eliminate daylight savings time in Alaska.

Why?

First, it puts Alaska out of sync with the rest of the country, particularly our neighbors in Canada and for S.E. residents, the west coast cities where we conduct much of our business.

Second, public safety would be compromised. We need more daylight in the evening hours of the summer, not the morning. Outdoor family recreation time is possible because of daylight savings time. We still have time to fish, picnic and hike after a day at work and many of us are able to turn that time into productive work around the house. For fishermen, contractors and construction crews, it means getting the jobs completed more quickly and more safely during the daylight hours of summer.

We as Alaskans spend more than our share of winter cooped up during the dark, dreary hours of November, December, January and February. Summer is our time to revel in the blessed daylight months.

Finally, many Alaskans keep in touch with family in the Lower 48. We’re now four hours removed from our East Coast relatives. Why make it 5 hours? We don’t like the 5 a.m. phone calls from them, and they’re not impressed with our calls after they’ve gone to bed.

We encourage our legislators to move on to matters of substance. They don’t have time to dabble in topics that have no real benefit to their constituents.