BILL NUMBER: AB 1457	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 22, 2003

INTRODUCED BY   Committee on Utilities and Commerce (Reyes (Chair),
Richman (Vice Chair), Calderon, Campbell, Canciamilla, Diaz, Jerome
Horton, La Malfa, La Suer, Levine, Maddox, Nunez, Ridley-Thomas, and
Wolk)

                        FEBRUARY 21, 2003

   An act relating to telecommunications, making an appropriation
therefor, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect
immediately.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1457, as amended, Committee on Utilities and Commerce.
Telecommunications:  High-Cost Fund-A.
   Existing law, requires the Public Utilities Commission to develop,
implement, and maintain a suitable program to establish a fair and
equitable local rate structure aided by transfer payments to small
independent telephone corporations serving rural and small
metropolitan areas, in order to promote the goals of universal
telephone service and to reduce any disparity in rates charged by
small independent telephone corporations serving rural and small
metropolitan areas.  Moneys collected for this program are deposited
into the California High-Cost Fund-A Administrative Committee Fund.
Moneys in the fund may be expended, upon appropriation in the annual
Budget Act.
   This bill would appropriate $2,500,000 from the fund for the
purpose of transferring funds to telephone corporations providing
services in high cost areas and authorized to receive the funds.  The
bill would prohibit the commission from increasing any fee, charge,
or rate as a result of this appropriation.
   The bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an
urgency statute.
   Vote:  2/3.  Appropriation:  yes.  Fiscal committee:  yes.
State-mandated local program:  no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


  SECTION 1.  There is hereby appropriated from the California
High-Cost Fund-A Administrative Committee Fund to the Public
Utilities Commission, two million five hundred thousand dollars
($2,500,000) for the purpose of transferring funds to telephone
corporations providing services in high cost areas and authorized to
receive these funds pursuant to Chapter 1.5 (commencing with Section
270) of Part 1 of Division 1 of the Public Utilities Code.  
No fee, charge, or rate may be increased by the commission as a
result of this section.
  SEC. 2.   
  SEC. 2.  No fee, charge, or rate may be increased by the commission
as a result of the act adding this section.
  SEC. 3.   This act is an urgency statute necessary for the
immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within
the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into
immediate effect.  The facts constituting the necessity are:
   The authority to expend money from the California High-Cost Fund-A
Administrative Committee Fund in the Budget Act for fiscal year
2001-02 was underestimated due to an accounting misunderstanding.
Money for the payments due to be transferred to telephone
corporations were collected and deposited into these funds, but
authorization to transfer the moneys fell short of the amount due to
be paid out by the end of the fiscal year.  The California High-Cost
Fund-A Administrative Committee Fund, among other things, provides
funding for basic telephone services to state residents who would not
otherwise receive these necessary services.  In order to provide
sufficient revenues for the telephone corporations authorized to
receive these funds pursuant to Chapter 1.5 (commencing with Section
270) of Part 1 of Division 1 of the Public Utilities Code, to
continue providing services in high cost areas, it is necessary that
this act take effect immediately.