SENATE BILL REPORT

                   SB 5370

               As Passed Senate, March 14, 1997

Title:  An act relating to reducing the time required for public notice of telecommunications rate reductions.

Brief Description:  Allowing a telecommunications company to reduce a rate or charge in a more streamlined manner.

Sponsors:  Senators Finkbeiner, Brown, Hochstatter, Strannigan, Rossi, Sheldon, Patterson and Winsley; by request of Utilities & Transportation Commission.

Brief History:

Committee Activity:  Energy & Utilities:  2/3/97, 2/13/97 [DP].

Passed Senate, 3/14/97, 47-0.

SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY & UTILITIES

Majority Report:  Do pass.

  Signed by Senators Finkbeiner, Chair; Hochstatter, Vice Chair; Brown, Jacobsen, Rossi and Swanson.

Staff:  Phil Moeller (786-7445)

Background:  Every telecommunications company providing service in Washington is required to file its tariffed schedule of rates with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC).  If a telecommunications company proposes to change a rate, it is required to file the change with the WUTC, with a 30-day notice period.  The WUTC may then approve or suspend the proposed change. 

Summary of Bill:  A telecommunications company may file a tariff that decreases its rates with ten days= notice to the WUTC if the filing does not contain an offsetting increase to another rate and the filing company agrees not to file, for a period of one year, an increase to another rate to recover the revenue deficit that results from the decrease. 

Appropriation:  None.

Fiscal Note:  Not requested.

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For:  This legislation allows regulated telecommunications companies additional downward pricing flexibility, which should help in meeting market pressures.

Testimony Against:  The practical effect of this bill is small and it does not provide enough regulatory relief.

Testified:  Teresa Osinski, WUTC (pro); Rosemary Williams, GTE (con); Rachael Myers, WA Citizens Action; Terry Vann, WITA; Carolyn Logue, NFIB (pro).