BILL ANALYSIS
Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
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| |219(Wright) |
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|Hearing Date: 5/21/01 |Amended: 5/1/01 |
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|Consultant: Lisa Matocq |Policy Vote: E, U & C 7-0 |
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 219, an urgency bill, extends until
January 1, 2006, the surcharge on intrastate telephone
service used to pay for the Deaf and Disabled
Telecommunications Program (DDTP), which provides
telecommunications devices and services for the deaf and
hearing impaired, and for the disabled.
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2000-01 2001-02
2002-03 Fund
Surcharge Annual revenues of potentially
$50,000 Special*
to fund DDTP program
Funds transfer Potential transfer of up to
$28,500 Special**
*Deaf and Disabled Telecommunications Program Fund
**Potential transfer from fund B (below) to the acquisition fund
(below) to be reimbursed by DDTP Administrative Committee Fund.
STAFF COMMENTS: Current law establishes the DDTP program
and requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to
establish a rate recovery mechanism to recover the costs of
the program. The surcharge expired January 1, 2001. The
PUC may adjust the surcharge but it has a statutory ceiling
of one-half of 1 percent; the surcharge, before it expired,
was 0.281%.
The bill also authorizes the transfer of funds from the
California High-Cost Fund-B Trust (fund B) to the Deaf
Equipment Acquisition Fund Trust (acquisition fund) in an
amount sufficient to cover the costs of the DDTP for up to
six months, or $28.5 million. Fund B is used to help
subsidize rural phone customers and currently has a balance
of about $900 million and a backlog of claims. In
addition, the bill requires the PUC to reimburse the fund B
for any such transfer with moneys from the DDTP
Administrative Committee Fund. According to PUC staff,
this provision is necessary because the DDTP Fund will be
depleted by approximately July 1, 2001, and it is likely
that the surcharge won't be implemented until 60 days after
the effective date of this bill. STAFF NOTES that it is
unclear why the acquisition and DDTP Administrative
Committee Funds are involved in the funds transfer. STAFF
ALSO NOTES that although there is no due date for repayment
of the funds transfer, the transfer provisions are repealed
January 1, 2002.
AB 2757 (Wright) of 2000 contained a provision similar to
this bill but was vetoed for unrelated reasons.