SECOND REGULAR SESSION
SENATE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
HOUSE BILL NO. 1728
93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Reported from the Committee on Commerce, Energy and the Environment, May 2, 2006, with recommendation that the Senate Committee Substitute do pass.
TERRY L. SPIELER, Secretary.
4834S.04C
AN ACT
To repeal section 386.700, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof three new sections relating to the public counsel.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Section 386.700, RSMo, is repealed and three new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 386.202, 386.700, and 386.715, to read as follows:
386.202. No commissioner or employee of the public service commission who is responsible for regulating or making recommendations on the regulation of gas, electric, water, or telephone utilities shall be employed by any public utility, as defined in section 386.020, engaged in such areas of regulation for a period of no less than two years after the individual has completed his or her employment with the commission.
386.700. 1. The director of the department of economic development shall appoint a public counsel to serve at the pleasure of the director of the department. The public counsel shall be an attorney at law licensed to practice law in this state and whose salary shall be fixed by the department director within the appropriation made therefor.
2. The director may remove the public counsel for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or misconduct in office, giving to the public counsel a copy of the charges against him or her and an opportunity of being publicly heard in person or by counsel, in his or her own defense, upon not less than a ten-day notice. If the public counsel shall be removed, the governor shall file in the office of the secretary of state a complete statement of all charges made against the public counsel, and his or her findings thereon, together with a complete record of the proceedings.
386.715. 1. The public counsel shall, prior to the beginning of each fiscal year, make available to the commission an estimate of the expenses to be incurred by the public counsel during such fiscal year, reasonably attributable to the regulation of public utilities as provided in this chapter and chapters 392 and 393, RSMo, and shall also separately estimate the amount of such expenses directly attributable to such regulation of each of the following groups of public utilities: electrical corporations, gas corporations, water corporations, heating companies, telephone corporations, telegraph corporations, sewer corporations, and any other public utility as defined in section 386.020, as well as the amount of such expenses not directly attributable to any such group.
2. For fiscal years 2008, 2009, and 2010, the public counsel shall allocate to each such group of public utilities a share of the estimated expenses for each year using the same allocation as the public service commission. For each fiscal year after fiscal year 2010, the public counsel shall allocate to each such group of public utilities the estimated expenses directly attributable to the regulation of such group and an amount equal to such proportion of the estimated expenses not directly attributable to any group as the gross intrastate operating revenues of such group during the three preceding calendar year bears to the total gross intrastate operating revenues of all public utilities subject to the jurisdiction of the commission, during such calendar years. The commission shall then assess, on behalf of the public counsel, the amount so allocated to each group of public utilities, subject to reduction as provided in this section, to the public utilities in such group in proportion to their respective gross intrastate operating revenues during the preceding calendar year. The total amount so assessed to all such public utilities shall not exceed two hundredths of one percent of the total gross intrastate operating revenues of all utilities subject to the jurisdiction of the commission. Notwithstanding subsection 2 of section 386.370 to the contrary, the total assessment for both the public counsel and the commission shall not exceed one-fourth of one percent of the total gross intrastate operating revenues of all utilities subject to the jurisdiction of the commission. Nothing in this section shall authorize the public service commission to determine how the office of public counsel allocates the estimated expenses directly attributable to the regulation of public utilities described in subsection 1 of this section or how the assessment imposed under this section is spent by the office of public counsel.
3. On behalf of the public counsel, the commission shall render a statement of such assessment to each such public utility on or before July first and the amount so assessed to each such public utility shall be paid by it to the director of revenue in full on or before July fifteenth next following the rendition of such statement, except that any such public utility may at its election pay such assessment in four equal installments not later than the following dates next following the rendition of said statement, to wit: July fifteenth, October fifteenth, January fifteenth and April fifteenth. The director of revenue shall remit such payments to the state treasurer.
4. The state treasurer shall credit such payments to a special fund, which is hereby created, to be known as "The Public Counsel Fund", which fund, or its successor fund created under section 33.571, RSMo, shall be devoted solely to the payment of expenditures actually incurred by the public counsel and attributable to the regulation of such public utilities subject to the jurisdiction of the commission. Any amount remaining in such special fund or its successor fund at the end of any fiscal year shall not revert to the general revenue fund, but shall be applicable by appropriation of the general assembly to the payment of such expenditures of the public counsel in the succeeding fiscal year and shall be applied by the public counsel to the reduction of the amount to be assessed to such public utilities in such succeeding fiscal year, such reduction to be allocated to each group of public utilities in proportion to the respective gross intrastate operating revenues of the respective groups during the preceding calendar year.
5. In order to enable the public counsel to make the allocations and assessments provided for in this section, each public utility subject to the jurisdiction of the commission shall file with the commission on or before March thirty-first of each year, a statement under oath showing its gross intrastate operating revenues for the preceding calendar year, and if any public utility shall fail to file such statement within the time established in this subsection, the commission shall estimate such revenue and such estimate shall be binding on such public utility for the purpose of this section.
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