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Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter
Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter
AS PASSED BY THE SENATE
June 4, 2003
H. 3530
Introduced by Reps. Cato, Wilkins, Sandifer, Young, Cotty, Edge and Owens
S. Printed 6/4/03--S.
Read the first time March 4, 2003.
TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING SECTION 58-3-27 SO AS TO PROHIBIT MEMBERSHIP ON AND RESTRICT EMPLOYMENT BY THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION OF A PERSON ASSOCIATED WITH A REGULATED BUSINESS; BY ADDING SECTION 58-3-35 SO AS TO PROVIDE FOR ETHICS STANDARDS AND REQUIREMENTS FOR PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSIONERS; BY ADDING SECTION 58-3-65 SO AS TO ESTABLISH AN ADVISORY STAFF AND AN ADVOCACY STAFF FOR THE COMMISSION AND DESCRIBE THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES; AND BY ADDING SECTION 58-3-400 SO AS TO PROHIBIT EX PARTE COMMUNICATIONS WITH AND BY A COMMISSIONER OR ADVISORY STAFF IN CONNECTION WITH A PENDING PROCEEDING; TO AMEND SECTION 58-3-20, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION, SO AS TO PROVIDE FOR QUALIFICATIONS, SCREENING, AND TERMS OF MEMBERSHIP; TO AMEND SECTION 58-3-24, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO PERSONS INELIGIBLE TO SERVE ON THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION, SO AS TO ALLOW A MEMBER OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO SERVE FOUR YEARS AFTER HE HAS NOT FILED FOR REELECTION TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY; TO AMEND PART 6, CHAPTER 6, TITLE 37, RELATING TO THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER ADVOCACY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, SO AS TO DELETE ANY RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE DIVISION IN CONNECTION WITH THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION; TO AMEND SECTION 8-13-90, RELATING TO SEEKING OR OFFERING PLEDGES OF VOTES, SO AS TO PROHIBIT THE DIRECT OR INDIRECT SEEKING OF A PLEDGE OR COMMUNICATION ABOUT SCREENING UNTIL CANDIDATES FOR THE OFFICE ARE DETERMINED; AND TO REPEAL SECTION 58-3-60 RELATING TO EMPLOYMENT OF STAFF FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION.
Amend Title To Conform
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. Section 58-27-865 of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 348 of 1996, is further amended to read:
"Section 58-27-865. (A) The words 'fuel cost' as used in this section shall include the cost of fuel, fuel costs related to purchased power, and the cost of SO2 emission allowances as used and shall be reduced by the net proceeds of any sales of SO2 emission allowances by the utility.
(B) In order to clarify the intent of this statue, 'fuel costs related to purchased power', as used in Section (A) shall include:
(1) costs of firm generation capacity purchases, which are defined as purchases made to cure a capacity deficiency or to maintain adequate reserve levels. 'Costs of firm generation capacity purchases' shall include either:
(a) the actual cost of fuel for energy delivered under firm generation capacity purchases, if identifiable by the seller; otherwise,
(b) the total delivered costs of firm generation capacity purchased excluding only generation capacity reservation charges and generation capacity option charges.
(2) the total delivered cost of economy purchases of electric power, including without limitation, transmission charges. 'Economy purchases' are defined as purchases made to displace higher cost generation, at a price which is less than the purchasing utility's avoided variable costs for the generation of an equivalent quantity of electric power.
(C) The commission shall direct each electrical utility which incurs fuel cost for the sale of electricity to submit to the commission, within such time and in such form as the commission may designate, its estimates of fuel costs for the next twelve months. The commission may hold a public hearing at any time between the twelve-month reviews to determine whether an increase or decrease in the base rate amount designed to recover fuel cost should be granted. Upon investigation of the estimate and conducting public hearings in accordance with law, the commission shall direct each company to place in effect in its base rate an amount designed to recover, during the succeeding twelve months, the fuel costs determined by the commission to be appropriate for that period, adjusted for the over-recovery or under-recovery from the preceding twelve-month period. The commission shall direct the electrical utilities to send notice to the utility customers with the antecedent billing of the time and place of the public hearings to be held every twelve months, and the commission shall again direct the electrical utilities to send notice to the utility customers with the next billing if the utility is granted a rate increase by the commission.
(C)(D) The commission shall direct the electrical utilities to account monthly for the differences between the recovery of fuel costs through base rates and the actual fuel costs experienced, by booking the difference to unbilled revenues with a corresponding deferred debit or credit, the balance of which will be included in the projected fuel cost component of the base rates for the succeeding period. The commission shall direct the electrical utilities to submit monthly reports of fuel costs and monthly reports of all scheduled and unscheduled outages of generating units with a capacity of one hundred megawatts or greater.
(D)(E) Upon request by the commission staff, the electrical utilities, or the Consumer Advocate, a public hearing must be held by the commission at any time between the twelve-month reviews to determine whether an increase or decrease in the base rate amount designed to recover fuel costs should be granted. If the request is by an electrical utility for a rate increase, the commission shall direct the utility to send notice of the request and hearing to all customers with the next billing, and if the commission grants the rate request subsequent to the request and hearing, the commission shall direct the utility to send notice of the amount of the increase or decrease to all customers with the next billing.
(E)(F) The commission may offset, to the extent considered appropriate, the cost of fuel recovered through sales of power pursuant to interconnection agreements with neighboring electrical utilities against fuel costs to be recovered.
(F)(G) The commission shall disallow recovery of any fuel costs that it finds without just cause to be the result of failure of the utility to make every reasonable effort to minimize fuel costs or any decision of the utility resulting in unreasonable fuel costs, giving due regard to reliability of service, economical generation mix, generating experience of comparable facilities, and minimization of the total cost of providing service. There shall be a rebuttable presumption that an electrical utility made every reasonable effort to minimize cost associated with the operation of its nuclear generation facility or system, as applicable, if the utility achieved a net capacity factor of ninety-two and one-half percent or higher during the period under review. The calculation of the net capacity factor shall exclude reasonable outage time associated with reasonable refueling, reasonable maintenance, reasonable repair, and reasonable equipment replacement outages; the reasonable reduced power generation experienced by nuclear units as they approach a refueling outage; the reasonable reduced power generation experienced by nuclear units associated with bringing a unit back to full power after an outage; Nuclear Regulatory Commission required testing outages unless due to the unreasonable acts of the utility; outages found by the commission not to be within the reasonable control of the utility; and acts of God. The calculation also shall exclude reasonable reduced power operations resulting from the demand for electricity being less than the full power output of the utility's nuclear generation system. If the net capacity factor is below ninety-two and one-half percent after reflecting the above specified outage time, then the utility shall have the burden of demonstrating the reasonableness of its nuclear operations during the period under review.
(G)(H) The commission is authorized to promulgate, in accordance with the provisions of this section, all regulations necessary to allow the recovery by electrical utilities of all their prudently incurred fuel costs as precisely and promptly as possible, in a manner that tends to assure public confidence and minimize abrupt changes in charges to consumers.
SECTION 2. A. Section 58-9-2200(6) of the 1976 Code, as added by Act 112 of 1999, is amended to read:
"(6) 'Service address' means the location of the telecommunications equipment from which telecommunications services are originated or at which telecommunications services are received by a retail customer. If this location is not a defined location, as in the case of mobile phones, paging systems, maritime systems, and the like, 'service address' means the location of the retail customer's primary use of the telecommunications equipment or the billing address as provided by the customer gives to the service provider, provided that the billing address is within the licensed service area of the service provider. A sale of postpaid calling services is sourced to the origination point of the telecommunications signal as first identified by either (i) the seller's telecommunications system; or (ii) information received by the seller from its service provider, if the system used to transport such signals is not that of the seller."
B. Section 58-9-2200 of the 1976 Code, as added by Act 112 of 1999, is amended by adding an appropriately numbered item at the end to read:
"( ) 'Postpaid calling service' means the telecommunications service obtained by making a payment on a call-by-call basis either through the use of a credit card or payment mechanism such as a bank card, travel card, credit card, or debit card, or by charge made to a telephone number that is not associated with the origination or termination of the telecommunications service."
C. Section 58-9-2220(2) of the 1976 Code, as added by Act 112 of 1999, is amended to read:
"(2)(a) The maximum business license tax that may be levied by a municipality on the gross income derived from the sale of retail telecommunications services for the preceding calendar or fiscal year which either originate or terminate in the municipality and which are charged to a service address within the municipality regardless of where these amounts are billed or paid and on which a business license tax has not been paid to another municipality for a business license tax year beginning after 2003 is one and one-quarter of one percent. is the lesser of seventy-five one hundredths of one percent of gross income derived from the sale of retail telecommunication services or the maximum business license tax rate as calculated by the Board of Economic Advisors pursuant to subsection (b). For a business in operation for less than one year, the amount of business license tax authorized by this section must be computed based on a twelve-month projected income.
(b) The Board of Economic Advisors from the appropriate municipal records shall determine actual total municipal revenues from business license taxes, franchise fees, and other fees contractually imposed on the sale of telecommunications services and received from telecommunications companies in 1998, and actual total revenues received by municipalities in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003 from such taxes and fees imposed on the gross income derived from the sale of retail telecommunications services. The board shall determine an annual average growth rate applicable to such revenues by averaging the annual growth rates applicable to these revenues for 1999-2000, 2000-2001, 2001-2002, and 2002-2003 and shall apply that average growth rate to the 1998 actual revenues compounded annually to derive an estimated 2004 total revenue. The tax rate to be calculated by the board is the fraction produced by dividing the 2004 estimated revenue as determined above by gross income in 2003 derived from the sale of retail telecommunications services in municipalities in this State.
(c) If the maximum business license tax rate that may be levied by a municipality on retail telecommunications services, as determined by the Board of Economic Advisors, is calculated or determined to exceed seventy-five one hundredths of one percent of gross income derived from the sale of retail telecommunication services a joint telecommunications study committee shall review the maximum business license tax calculation, as determined by the Board of Economic Advisors, and verify the maximum business license tax calculation. Upon verification of the maximum business license tax calculation, the joint telecommunications study committee must sponsor a joint resolution to allow a municipality to levy the maximum business license tax rate greater than seventy-five one hundredths of one percent of gross income derived from the sale of retail telecommunications services.
(d) The joint telecommunications study committee shall consist of six members of the General Assembly: three Senators appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and three Representatives appointed by the Speaker of the House. The joint telecommunications study committee shall utilize the staff and resources of the Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee of the House of Representatives and the Judiciary Committee of the Senate. The joint telecommunications study committee is authorized to verify the maximum business license tax rate determined by the Board of Economic Advisors."
D. Section 58-9-2230 of the 1976 Code, as added by Act 112 of 1999, is amended to read:
"Section 58-9-2230. (A) A municipality must shall manage its public rights-of-way on a competitively neutral and nondiscriminatory basis and may impose a fair and reasonable franchise or consent fee on a telecommunications company for use of the public streets and public property to provide telecommunications service unless the telecommunications company has an existing contractual, constitutional, statutory, or other right to construct or operate in the public streets and public property including, but not limited to, consent previously granted by a municipality. Any such A fair and reasonable franchise or consent fee which may be imposed upon a telecommunications company shall not exceed the annual sum as set forth in the following schedule based on population:
Tier I--1--1,000--$ 100.00
Tier II--1,001--3,000--$ 200.00
Tier III--3,001--5,000--$ 300.00
Tier IV--5,001--10,000--$ 500.00
Tier V--10,001--25,000--$ 750.00
Tier VI--Over 25,000--$1,000.00
This franchise or consent fee is in lieu of any permit fee, encroachment fee, degradation fee, or other fee assessed on a telecommunications provider for its occupation of or work within the public right-of-way.
(B) A municipality must shall manage its public rights-of-way on a competitively neutral and nondiscriminatory basis and may impose an administrative fee upon a telecommunications company which that is not subject to subsection (A) in this section and that constructs or installs or has previously constructed or installed facilities in the public streets and public property to provide telecommunications service. Any such The fee which may be imposed on a telecommunications company shall not exceed the annual sum as set forth in the following schedule based on population:
Tier I--1--1,000--$ 100.00
Tier II--1,001--3,000--$ 200.00
Tier III--3,001--5,000--$ 300.00
Tier IV--5,001--10,000--$ 500.00
Tier V--10,001--25,000--$ 750.00
Tier VI--Over 25,000--$1,000.00
This administrative fee is in lieu of any permit fee, encroachment fee, degradation fee, or other fee assessed on a telecommunications provider for its occupation of or work within the public right-of-way.
(C) No A municipality shall not levy any tax, license, fee, or other assessment on, with respect to, or measured by the receipts from any a telecommunications service, other than (a) (1) the business license tax authorized by this article, and (b) (2) franchise fees as defined and regulated under 47 U.S.C. Section 542; provided, however, that nothing herein shall in this subsection restrict restricts the right of any a municipality to impose ad valorem taxes, service fees, sales taxes, or other taxes and fees lawfully imposed on other businesses within the municipalities. This subsection does not prohibit a municipality from assessing upon a telecommunications company fees of general applicability such as sanitation fees, building permit fees, and zoning permit fees that are not related to the telecommunications company's occupation of or work within the public right-of-way.
(D) A telecommunications company, including a mobile telecommunications company providing mobile telecommunications services, shall not be deemed is not considered to be using public streets or public property unless it has constructed or installed physical facilities in public streets or on public property,. provided that the The use of public streets or public property under lease, site license, or other similar contractual arrangement between a municipality and a telecommunications company shall does not constitute the use of public streets or public property under for purposes of this article. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, a telecommunications company shall not be deemed is not considered to be using public streets or public property under for purposes of this article solely because of its use of airwaves within a municipality. Should any If a telecommunications company, including a telecommunications company providing mobile telecommunications services, request requests of a municipality permission to construct or install physical facilities in public streets or on public property, such that request shall must be considered by such the municipality in a manner that is competitively neutral and nondiscriminatory as amongst among all telecommunications companies."
SECTION 3. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.
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