AN ACT Relating to extending the prohibition on
mandatory local measured service; amending RCW 80.04.130; and declaring an
emergency.
BE
IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1.
RCW 80.04.130 and 1992 c 68 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
(1) Whenever any public service company shall
file with the commission any schedule, classification, rule or regulation, the
effect of which is to change any rate, charge, rental or toll theretofore
charged, the commission shall have power, either upon its own motion or upon
complaint, upon notice, to enter upon a hearing concerning such proposed change
and the reasonableness and justness thereof, and pending such hearing and the
decision thereon the commission may suspend the operation of such rate, charge,
rental or toll for a period not exceeding ten months from the time the same
would otherwise go into effect, and after a full hearing the commission may make
such order in reference thereto as would be provided in a hearing initiated
after the same had become effective. The commission shall not suspend a tariff
that makes a decrease in a rate, charge, rental, or toll filed by a
telecommunications company pending investigation of the fairness, justness, and
reasonableness of the decrease when the filing does not contain any offsetting
increase to another rate, charge, rental, or toll and the filing company agrees
to not file for an increase to any rate, charge, rental, or toll to recover the
revenue deficit that results from the decrease for a period of one year. The
filing company shall file with any decrease sufficient information as the
commission by rule may require to demonstrate the decreased rate, charge,
rental, or toll is above the long run incremental cost of the service. A
tariff decrease that results in a rate that is below long run incremental cost,
or is contrary to commission rule or order, or the requirements of this
chapter, shall be rejected for filing and returned to the company. The
commission may prescribe a different rate to be effective on the prospective
date stated in its final order after its investigation, if it concludes based
on the record that the originally filed and effective rate is unjust, unfair,
or unreasonable.
For the purposes of this section, tariffs for
the following telecommunications services, that temporarily waive or reduce
charges for existing or new subscribers for a period not to exceed sixty days
in order to promote the use of the services shall be considered tariffs that
decrease rates, charges, rentals, or tolls:
(a) Custom calling service;
(b) Second access lines; or
(c) Other services the commission specifies by
rule.
The commission may suspend any promotional
tariff other than those listed in (a) through (c) of this subsection.
The commission may suspend the initial tariff
filing of any water company removed from and later subject to commission
jurisdiction because of the number of customers or the average annual gross
revenue per customer provisions of RCW 80.04.010. The commission may allow
temporary rates during the suspension period. These rates shall not exceed the
rates charged when the company was last regulated. Upon a showing of good
cause by the company, the commission may establish a different level of
temporary rates.
(2) At any hearing involving any change in any
schedule, classification, rule or regulation the effect of which is to increase
any rate, charge, rental or toll theretofore charged, the burden of proof to
show that such increase is just and reasonable shall be upon the public service
company.
(3) The implementation of mandatory local
measured telecommunications service is a major policy change in available
telecommunications service. The commission shall not accept for filing or
approve, prior to June 1, ((1993)) 1998, a tariff filed by a
telecommunications company which imposes mandatory local measured service on
any customer or class of customers, except that, upon finding that it is in the
public interest, the commission may accept for filing and approve a tariff that
imposes mandatory measured service for a telecommunications company's extended
area service or foreign exchange service. This subsection does not apply to
land, air, or marine mobile service, or to pay telephone service, or to any
service which has been traditionally offered on a measured service basis.
(4) The implementation of Washington telephone
assistance program service is a major policy change in available
telecommunications service. The implementation of Washington telephone
assistance program service will aid in achieving the stated goal of universal
telephone service.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.
This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace,
health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public
institutions, and shall take effect immediately.
