AN ACT Relating to
extending the prohibition on mandatory local measured telecommunications
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 1998 c
110 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 a price list, nor shall it accept for filing or approve, prior to June
1, ((2001)) 2004, 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 a price list or it 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.
(5) If a utility claims
a sales or use tax exemption on the pollution control equipment for an electrical
generation facility and abandons the generation facility before the pollution
control equipment is fully depreciated, any tariff filing for a rate increase
to recover abandonment costs for the pollution control equipment shall be
considered unjust and unreasonable for the purposes of this section.
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 takes effect
immediately.
