FINAL BILL REPORT

                   SB 5370

                          C 166 L 97

                      Synopsis as Enacted

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.

Senate Committee on Energy & Utilities

House Committee on Energy & Utilities

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 WUTC, with a 30-day notice period.  WUTC may then approve or suspend the proposed change.

Summary:  A telecommunications company may file a tariff that decreases its rates with ten days= notice to the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission 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.

Votes on Final Passage:

Senate 47 0

House     94 2

House     96 0 (House reconsidered)

Effective:  July 27, 1997