SECTIONS 431-435 - California Statutes

PUBLIC UTILITIES CODE

SECTION 431-435

431. The commission shall annually determine a fee to be paid by
every electrical, gas, telephone, telegraph, water, sewer system, and
heat corporation and every other public utility providing service
directly to customers or subscribers and subject to the jurisdiction
of the commission other than a railroad, except as otherwise provided
in Article 2 (commencing with Section 421).
The annual fee shall be established to produce a total amount
equal to that amount established in the authorized commission budget
for the same year, including adjustments for increases in employee
compensation, other increases appropriated by the Legislature, and an
appropriate reserve to regulate public utilities less the amount to
be paid from special accounts or funds pursuant to Section 402,
reimbursements, federal funds, and any other revenues, and the amount
of unencumbered funds from the preceding year.
This article shall not apply to any electrical cooperative as
defined in Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 2776) of Part 2.
On and after January 1, 1985, this article shall apply to
radiotelephone utilities as defined in Section 4902 as those
provisions read on December 31, 1984.

432. The commission shall establish the fee pursuant to Section 431
with the approval of the Department of Finance and in accordance
with all of the following:
(a) In its annual budget request, the commission shall specify
both of the following:
(1) The amount of its budget to be financed by the fee.
(2) The dollar allocation of the amount of its budget shall be
financed by the fee by each class of public utility subject to the
fee. The fee allocation among classes of public utilities shall
reflect expenditures by the commission on regulatory and other
authorized activities affecting each respective class, and shall bear
the same ratio that the commission's workload for each class of
public utility subject to the fee bears to the commission's total
workload for all public utilities subject to the fee.
(b) The commission may establish different and distinct methods of
assessing fees for each class of public utility, if the revenues
collected are consistent with paragraph (2) of subdivision (a),
except that the commission shall establish a uniform charge per
kilowatt hour for sales in kilowatt hours for the class of electrical
corporations and a uniform charge per therm for sales in therms for
the class of gas corporations.
(c) Within each class of public utility subject to the fee, the
commission shall allocate among the members of the class the amount
of its budget to be financed by the fee using the following methods:
(1) For electrical corporations, the ratio that each corporation's
sales in kilowatt hours bears to the total sales in kilowatt hours
for the class.
(2) For gas corporations, the ratio that each corporation's sales
in therms bears to the total sales in therms for the class.
(3) For telephone and telegraph corporations, the ratio that each
corporation's gross intrastate revenues bears to the total gross
intrastate revenues for the class. If the commission determines that
there is a need for consultants or advisory services to assist in
determining the reasonableness of capital expenditures for a
telephone corporation, the commission may adjust the fees within the
class so that the expenses for the consultants and advisory services
are fully allocated to that telephone corporation.
(4) For water and sewer system corporations, the ratio that each
corporation's gross intrastate revenues bears to the total gross
intrastate revenues for the class.
(5) For all other public utilities, an appropriate measurement
methodology determined by the commission.
(d) Every public utility belonging to more than one class shall be
subject to the fee for each class of which it is a member.
(e) For every public utility with annual gross intrastate revenues
of seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($750,000) or less, the
commission shall annually establish uniform fees to be paid by each
such public utility, if the revenues collected thereby are consistent
with paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) and subdivision (c).

432.5. (a) The commission shall report to the Legislature the
collections from each class of utility and expenditures, both direct
and indirect, for regulatory and other authorized commission
activities affecting each class. Where expenditures are for overhead,
allocations of services common to several classes, or for
commission-wide activities, the methods used to calculate the
expenditures attributed to the class shall be described in reasonable
detail.
(b) The report shall be furnished to the Legislature within 60
days after the end of the fiscal year, and shall be subject to audit.
The commission shall maintain information and reports necessary to
perform an audit pursuant to this section.

433. Except as provided in Section 404, every public utility
subject to Section 431 shall make payment of the required fee in
accordance with the following schedule:
(a) Every public utility with annual gross intrastate revenues of
seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($750,000) or less shall make
payment of the fee to the commission on an annual basis on or before
January 15.
(b) Every other public utility not subject to subdivision (a)
shall make payment of the fee to the commission on a quarterly basis
between the first and 15th days of July, October, January, and April.

434. (a) The commission may require every public utility subject to
this article to furnish information and reports to the commission,
at the time or times it specifies, to enable it to make the
allocations pursuant to Section 432.
(b) Any public utility required to submit information and reports
under this article may, in lieu thereof, submit information or
reports made to any other governmental agency if all of the following
are met:
(1) The alternate information or reports contain all of the
information required by the commission.
(2) The requirements to which the alternate reports or information
are responsive are clearly identified.
(3) The information or reports are certified by the public utility
to be true and correct.

435. As used in this article:
(a) "Class" means a group of public utilities as specified by the
commission for purposes of establishing fees pursuant to this
article. The commission shall create separate classes for the
following: electrical corporations, gas corporations, heat
corporations, water corporations, sewer system corporations, and
telephone and telegraph corporations.
(b) "Fee" means that monetary amount determined in accordance with
this article.
(c) "Gross intrastate revenues" means those revenues from a public
utility subject to the jurisdiction of the commission and accounted
for according to the uniform system of accounts maintained by the
commission. For purposes of this article, the amount of gross
intrastate revenues of a public utility subject to the jurisdiction
of the commission shall be the gross intrastate operating revenues
set forth in the annual report of the public utility to the
commission.
(d) "Sales in kilowatt hours" means sales in kilowatt hours,
subject to the jurisdiction of the commission, for service directly
to customers and subscribers of each electrical corporation, and
shall not include interdepartmental sales or transfers and sales to
other privately owned or publicly owned public utilities furnishing
electricity.
(e) "Sales in therms" means deliveries of gas in therms, without
regard to ownership of the gas, subject to the jurisdiction of the
commission, directly to customers and subscribers of each gas
corporation, except interdepartmental sales or transfers and sales to
other privately owned or publicly owned public utilities furnishing
electricity, gas, or heat.