PERMANENT RULES
COMMISSION
1 On February 28, 2005, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (commission) filed with the code reviser an order repealing, amending and adopting rules permanently in certain sections of the above captioned chapters of Title 480 WAC, relating to reporting of transactions between regulated utility and transportation companies and their subsidiaries. The commission took this action pursuant to RCW 80.01.040, 80.04.160, and 81.04.160. The order is filed at WSR 05-06-051. The effective date for the repeal, amendment, and adoption of the rules is March 31, 2005.
2 Recently, the commission learned that an intended deletion of a phrase from subsection (1) of WAC 480-120-369 as published at WSR 05-01-224, was erroneously included in the rule submitted for adoption. The phrase that should have been deleted from subsection (1) of WAC 480-120-369 is set out below in italics:
WAC 480-120-369 Transferring cash or assuming obligations. This section does not apply to a company classified as competitive pursuant to RCW 80.36.320, or to a local exchange company that serves less than two percent of the access lines in the state of Washington.
(1) At least five business days before a telecommunications company whose corporate/issuer rating is not in one of the four highest rating categories of either Standard & Poor's L.L.C. or Moody's Investors Service, Inc., or its subsidiary that is not rated investment grade or its subsidiary transfers cash to any of its affiliated interests or subsidiaries or assumes an obligation or liability of any of its affiliated interests or any of its subsidiaries, the company must report to the commission an estimate of the amount to be transferred and the terms of the transaction when the transaction will exceed thresholds as described in (a) or (b) of this subsection.
3 Failure to delete the phrase, or its subsidiary that is not rated investment grade, from the rule submitted to the code reviser with the adoption order constitutes an oversight. Accordingly the commission enters this order to correct the rule by deleting this phrase from WAC 480-120-369(1). A copy of the corrected rule is shown below as Appendix A.
DATED at Olympia, Washington, this 28th day of March, 2005.
Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission
Mark H. Sidran, Chairman
Patrick J. Oshie, Commissioner
Philip B. Jones, Commissioner
APPENDIX AOTS-7973.2
NEW SECTION
WAC 480-120-369
Transferring cash or assuming
obligations.
This section does not apply to a company
classified as competitive pursuant to RCW 80.36.320, or to a
local exchange company that serves less than two percent of
the access lines in the state of Washington.
(1) At least five business days before a telecommunications company whose corporate/issuer rating is not in one of the four highest rating categories of either Standard & Poor's L.L.C. or Moody's Investors Service, Inc., or its subsidiary transfers cash to any of its affiliated interests or subsidiaries or assumes an obligation or liability of any of its affiliated interests or any of its subsidiaries, the company must report to the commission an estimate of the amount to be transferred and the terms of the transaction when the transaction will exceed thresholds as described in (a) or (b) of this subsection.
(a) The company must report if the cumulative transactions to a subsidiary or affiliated interest for the prior twelve months exceed a threshold of five percent, which is based on the prior calendar year gross operating revenue from Washington intrastate operations subject to commission jurisdiction.
(b) When the threshold in (a) of this subsection has been reached, the company must report each subsequent transaction exceeding a threshold of one percent for the prior twelve-month period, which is based on the prior calendar year gross operating revenue from Washington intrastate operations subject to commission jurisdiction.
(2) The reporting requirements in subsection (1) of this section do not include payments for:
(a) Federal and state taxes;
(b) Goods, services, or commodities;
(c) Transactions, attributed to the regulated entity, previously approved or ordered by the commission, other regulatory agencies, or the court;
(d) Dividends to the extent the level of such dividends over a twelve-month period does not exceed the larger of:
(i) Net income during such period; or
(ii) The average level of dividends over the preceding three years; or
(e) Sweep or cash management accounts used to transfer funds to or from a subsidiary or affiliate as part of the customary and routine cash management functions between or among the company and its subsidiary or affiliate.
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