BILL NUMBER: AB 1457	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  JUNE 17, 2003
	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  transfer
payments  to telephone corporations providing services in high
cost areas and authorized to receive the funds  , for costs
incurred during the 2001-02 fiscal year, except to the extent the
appropriation is made in the Budget Act of 2003  .  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 
 transfer payments  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   Section 275  of the Public
Utilities Code  , for costs incurred during the 2001-02 fiscal
year  .
  SEC. 2.  No fee, charge, or rate may be increased by the commission
as a result of the act adding this section.
  SEC. 3.   Except as otherwise provided in this section, Section
1 of this act shall be inoperative if, in the determination of the
commission, an appropriation in the same amount is made in the Budget
Act of 2003 for the same purpose as Section 1 of this act.  Section
1 of this act shall be operative to the extent the amount of the
appropriation in Section 1 exceeds the amount of any appropriations
for the same purposes made in the Budget Act of 2003, as determined
by the commission.
  SEC. 4.   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   moneys 
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   Moneys
 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.