If Sen. Steve Vick had his way, North Idaho would be on Mountain standard time year round – so it’d be in the same time zone as Boise in the winter, but wouldn’t change clocks for daylight-saving time in the summer; you can read my full Sunday column here at spokesman.com.

Vick proposed a resolution to the Idaho Senate last week noting that the state of Washington considered, but didn’t pass, legislation last year looking at making the change, which would essentially put Washington in its current daylight-saving time zone year-round. If Washington were to change, Vick said, North Idaho should too.

“I think people get frustrated by the switching back and forth,” Vick, R-Dalton Gardens, told the Idaho Senate. “I think North Idaho is very well situated to stay in one time zone year-round, and if we do, I don’t want it to be Pacific time.” He said that’s because “it already gets light at 4:30 in the morning in the summer, and 3:30 in the morning – that hour of daylight there just doesn’t do me any good. Probably some people it does, but not me.”

Vick’s resolution, SCR 138, passed the Senate unanimously.

Currently, North Idaho, like Washington, is on Pacific standard time in the winter, and Pacific daylight time in the summer.  Southern Idaho, from “Time Zone Bridge” in Riggins to the south, is on Mountain time, and changes to Mountain daylight time in the summers.

Vick said he wouldn’t propose changing North Idaho’s time zone unless Washington changed, too; his resolution would notify the U.S. Department of Transportation, which makes time-zone decisions, and the state of Washington that Idaho is “prepared to act.” Vick said that’s his way of giving Washington lawmakers a nudge to look at the idea again.

Vick said North Idaho should definitely stay in the same time zone as Washington. Otherwise, he said, “It’s like having Boise and Nampa on different time zones, if Coeur d’Alene and Spokane were on different time zones.”

The resolution would apply to the 10 northernmost counties in Idaho.

Also in my Sunday column this week: Wolves, honoring Mike Nugent, and higher ed and Medicaid budgets set.