A bill that would have allowed voters to weigh in on whether California should abolish daylight saving time has failed in the state Senate, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
Assembly Bill 385, which sought to end the biannual time changes in California, was proposed by Assemblyman Kansen Chu, D – San Jose, earlier this year.
The bill called for the state to observe Standard Pacific Time during the entire year, ending the decades-old practice of “falling back” and “springing forward” that began after voters approved Proposition 12 in 1949.
It initially failed to pass the state’s upper house by four votes last Tuesday, according to the Times.
John Myers, the Times’ Sacramento bureau chief, tweeted that the bill was “officially killed” by the state Senate at 6:51 p.m. Tuesday night.
Had the state Senate approved the measure, it would have ended up on the California ballot in November 2018, giving voters an opportunity to reject the time changes.
Among those who sought to get daylight saving time observance on the ballot was Sen. Ted Gaines, R-Rocklin, who explained the time change has led to an increase in workplace injuries, the Times reported last week.
“The incidents of accidents have gone up,” he said. “It’s about time we let Californians re-evaluate this longstanding practice.”
Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, favored keeping daylight saving, noting that increasing the time change between the West and East coasts could complicate trade.
“Should the East Coast spring forward and we don’t, now there’s a four-hour gap,” he said, according to the Times.
Daylight saving time ends this year at 2 a.m. on Nov. 6.
