The Outstater

October 28, 2025

DST: It’s that #$%&! Time Again

(Oct. 29) — Most of Indiana will be setting clocks back one hour this Sunday as the state leaves Daylight Saving Time, an insane contraption of the legislative mind and a chrono-biological insult to the citizenry.

When Indiana approved Daylight Saving Time (DST) in 2005 it opted for Eastern instead of Central time at the urging of the newly elected Gov. Mitch Daniels and the state Chamber of Commerce, which said it would be better for business, a claim since contended. 

In any case, the Indiana General Assembly passed Senate Enrolled Act 127 after intense debate, first clearing the Senate narrowly but then failing 49-48 in the House on first vote. It then passed 51-49 on a revote, thus repealing the Eastern Time exemption from DST (with 12 counties sat aside).

Confused? Good, you are beginning to understand. The change put the state on “double fast time” for part of the year, forcing children to travel to school and wait for buses in pitch darkness. The situation is summed up by our Dr. John Gaski in Indiana Mandate: A Return to Founding Principles: 

“What kind of cynical mentality on the part of federal bureaucrats and Indiana state government officials would lead them to recklessly or even knowingly endanger children just for a political end? Or maybe it just didn’t occur to them that forcing children to go to school in the dark could lead to trouble.”

You don’t want to know what heroic machinations would be required to change it back.  — the Indiana Policy Review

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