Clocks will be turned back this Sunday at 2:00 am across Alaska for Daylight Saving Time. The Juneau Chamber of Commerce is preparing counter to the bill that would eliminate that which was passed by the Alaska Senate last session.
Chamber Executive Director Craig Dahl spoke about their next step….
Dahl: “We were waiting for the tourist season to sort of come to an end so people have time but we’re planning to get a survey out around southeast Alaska to determine one more time the financial impact on key businesses that are affected by Daylight Savings Time.”
The measure sponsored by Anchorage Senator Anna MacKinnon now sits in a subcommittee of the House State Affairs Committee.
Juneau has argued that eliminating Daylight Saving Time will affect tourism in Southeast towns.
Dahl says the chamber’s Government Affairs Committee is working on a compromise…
Dahl: “The compromise would be to have everybody on the rail belt, down, all of Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks, and southeast move to Pacific and then drop Daylight Savings Time. That would be probably the ideal situation, that would preserve the daylight time here in southeast that we’re all concerned about and also fulfill Senator MacKinnon’s goal of eliminating Daylight Savings Time change.”
The Uniform Time Act would exempt Alaska from Daylight Saving Time and if passed by the Alaska House next session it would be implemented by 2017.