S‑1589.1      _____________________________________________

 

SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5510

 

           _____________________________________________

 

State of Washington      57th Legislature     2001 Regular Session

 

By Senate Committee on Economic Development & Telecommunications (originally sponsored by Senators B. Sheldon, Winsley, Haugen, Constantine, Fairley, Long, Eide, Hale, Prentice, Jacobsen, Costa, Kastama, Fraser, Kline, McAuliffe, Shin, Stevens, Regala, Morton, Zarelli, Benton and Oke)

 

READ FIRST TIME 02/13/01. 

_1      AN ACT Relating to extending the prohibition on mandatory local

_2  measured telecommunications service; and amending RCW 80.04.130.

     

_3  BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

     

_4      Sec. 1.  RCW 80.04.130 and 1998 c 110 s 1 are each amended to read

_5  as follows:

_6      (1) Whenever any public service company shall file with the

_7  commission any schedule, classification, rule or regulation, the

_8  effect of which is to change any rate, charge, rental or toll

_9  theretofore charged, the commission shall have power, either upon

10  its own motion or upon complaint, upon notice, to enter upon a

11  hearing concerning such proposed change and the reasonableness and

12  justness thereof, and pending such hearing and the decision

13  thereon the commission may suspend the operation of such rate,

14  charge, rental or toll for a period not exceeding ten months from

15  the time the same would otherwise go into effect, and after a full

16  hearing the commission may make such order in reference thereto as

17  would be provided in a hearing initiated after the same had become

18  effective.  The commission shall not suspend a tariff that makes a

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_1  decrease in a rate, charge, rental, or toll filed by a

_2  telecommunications company pending investigation of the fairness,

_3  justness, and reasonableness of the decrease when the filing does

_4  not contain any offsetting increase to another rate, charge,

_5  rental, or toll and the filing company agrees to not file for an

_6  increase to any rate, charge, rental, or toll to recover the

_7  revenue deficit that results from the decrease for a period of one

_8  year.  The filing company shall file with any decrease sufficient

_9  information as the commission by rule may require to demonstrate

10  the decreased rate, charge, rental, or toll is above the long run

11  incremental cost of the service.  A tariff decrease that results in

12  a rate that is below long run incremental cost, or is contrary to

13  commission rule or order, or the requirements of this chapter,

14  shall be rejected for filing and returned to the company.  The

15  commission may prescribe a different rate to be effective on the

16  prospective date stated in its final order after its

17  investigation, if it concludes based on the record that the

18  originally filed and effective rate is unjust, unfair, or

19  unreasonable.

20      For the purposes of this section, tariffs for the following

21  telecommunications services, that temporarily waive or reduce

22  charges for existing or new subscribers for a period not to exceed

23  sixty days in order to promote the use of the services shall be

24  considered tariffs that decrease rates, charges, rentals, or

25  tolls:

26      (a) Custom calling service;

27      (b) Second access lines; or

28      (c) Other services the commission specifies by rule.

29      The commission may suspend any promotional tariff other than

30  those listed in (a) through (c) of this subsection.

31      The commission may suspend the initial tariff filing of any

32  water company removed from and later subject to commission

33  jurisdiction because of the number of customers or the average

34  annual gross revenue per customer provisions of RCW 80.04.010. The

35  commission may allow temporary rates during the suspension

36  period.  These rates shall not exceed the rates charged when the

37  company was last regulated.  Upon a showing of good cause by the

SSB 5510                       p. 2

_1  company, the commission may establish a different level of

_2  temporary rates.

_3      (2) At any hearing involving any change in any schedule,

_4  classification, rule or regulation the effect of which is to

_5  increase any rate, charge, rental or toll theretofore charged, the

_6  burden of proof to show that such increase is just and reasonable

_7  shall be upon the public service company.

_8      (3) The implementation of mandatory local measured

_9  telecommunications service is a major policy change in available

10  telecommunications service.  The commission shall not accept for

11  filing a price list, nor shall it accept for filing or approve,

12  ((prior to)) before June 1, ((2001)) 2004, a tariff filed by a

13  telecommunications company which imposes mandatory local measured

14  service on any customer or class of customers, except that, upon

15  finding that it is in the public interest, the commission may

16  accept for filing a price list or it may accept for filing and

17  approve a tariff that imposes mandatory measured service for a

18  telecommunications company's extended area service or foreign

19  exchange service.  This subsection does not apply to land, air, or

20  marine mobile service, or to pay telephone service, or to any

21  service which has been traditionally offered on a measured service

22  basis.

23      (4) The implementation of Washington telephone assistance

24  program service is a major policy change in available

25  telecommunications service.  The implementation of Washington

26  telephone assistance program service will aid in achieving the

27  stated goal of universal telephone service.

28      (5) If a utility claims a sales or use tax exemption on the

29  pollution control equipment for an electrical generation facility

30  and abandons the generation facility before the pollution control

31  equipment is fully depreciated, any tariff filing for a rate

32  increase to recover abandonment costs for the pollution control

33  equipment shall be considered unjust and unreasonable for the

34  purposes of this section.

 

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