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Indiana P.L.243-2005
Time Zone Boundary
In 2005 the legislature of the State of Indiana passed a law repealing Indiana's non-observance of Daylight Saving Time and setting in motion a nearly two year process adjusting the time zone boundary in Indiana.
    P.L.243-2005 [S.127. Approved May 13, 2005.]
  1. The governor and the general assembly hereby petition the United States Department of Transportation to initiate proceedings under the Uniform Time Act of 1966 to hold hearings in the appropriate locations in Indiana on the issue of the location of the boundary between the Central Time Zone and the Eastern Time Zone in Indiana.
  2. The governor and the general assembly advise the United States Department of Transportation that any administrative action to change the time zone boundary in response to the petition contained in this SECTION should not change the time zone for any of the following Indiana counties:
    1. Any Indiana county currently located in the Central Time Zone, which should remain in the Central Time Zone.
    2. Clark County, which should remain in the Eastern Time Zone.
    3. Dearborn County, which should remain in the Eastern Time Zone.
    4. Floyd County, which should remain in the Eastern Time Zone.
    5. Harrison County, which should remain in the Eastern Time Zone.
    6. Ohio County, which should remain in the Eastern Time Zone.
  3. To implement this SECTION, the governor shall, not later than ten (10) days after the governor files this act with the secretary of state, send a copy of this act along with any other necessary documentation prescribed by the United States Department of Transportation to the appropriate official of the United States Department of Transportation.
  4. This SECTION expires July 1, 2007.
 In compliance with the law, Governor Daniels sent a letter to the US DOT on May 20th. The US DOT responded to the petition on August 11th by asking any county that wished to change time zones submit a petition to the DOT following the standard procedure. A deadline of September 16th was set for government officials to file a petition.

23 counties filed petitions with 18 requesting Central Time and 5 requesting Eastern Time. Most eligible counties did not file petitions.

The map to the right illustrates counties that filed petitions with the US DOT. The dark red and green counties are the 15 specified in Indiana's SB127 as staying in their respective time zones. Red counties filed petitions to move to Central Time. Green counties specifically requested Eastern Time. Fountain County decided to ask for selected parts of their county to join Central Time.
In unrelated action the US Congress passed a law in August 2005 changing the dates for Daylight Saving Time effective in March 2007. This led to an additional two to three weeks of spring DST in March and an additional week of fall DST in October (extending DST to cover the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November).

On October 25th, After considering the county petitions the US DOT released a Notice of Propopsed Rule Making specifying five counties that may be moved to Central Time for the convenience of commerce and set a November 30th deadline for public comments. (The normal 60 day period for public comments was shortened to 30 days to allow the US DOT to reach a decision and give ample notice of the ruling prior to the spring time change.)

In addition to accepting written comments four public meetings were held by the US DOT in Logansport, Terre Haute, Jasper and South Bend. Over 6000 public comments were received.

The map to the right illustrates the five counties proposed to be added to Central Time in the NPRM.
On January 20th, 2006, the Department of Transportation released their final ruling. Eight counties were moved to Central Time effective April 2, 2006. All counties moved had submitted a petition requesting Central Time prior to the September deadline and although four counties moved were not part of the original NPRM additional information was gathered during the public comment period from the affected counties convincing the US DOT that the moves would be in fact for the convenience of commerce.

St Joseph County was removed from the final rule due to their commerce ties to counties that had not requested a change and a lack of support for Central Time.

The map to the right illustrates the eight counties added to Central Time by the final rule.
Pulaski County immediately objected but observed Central Time for one year until March 11, 2007. Five counties in southern Indiana petitioned to rejoin to Eastern Time and returned November 4, 2007.

After over two years of effort, only two counties ended up in a different time zone.