Oklahoma § 17-180.11 - Assessment upon public utilities

§ 17-180.11. Assessment upon public utilities

A. The Corporation Commission is hereby authorized to assess a

fee upon each public utility to provide adequate funding to the

Public Utility Division of the Corporation Commission for the

regulation of public utilities in this state and for providing for

timely and expeditious reviews and completion of rate cases, and

increased responsiveness to the needs of consumers and the regulated

community.

B. 1. The assessment authorized by this section may, after

excluding the amount allocated to interexchange telecommunications

companies, resellers, pay phone service providers and operator

service providers in paragraph 2 of this subsection, be borne by the

affected public utilities as follows:

a.

one-half (1/2) shall be allocated based on that

proportion which the total regulated Oklahoma

jurisdictional gross operating revenues of each public

utility bear to the total regulated Oklahoma

Oklahoma Statutes - Title 17. Corporation Commission

jurisdictional gross operating revenues of all public

utilities, and

b.

one-half (1/2) shall be allocated based on that

proportion which the total number of regulated

Oklahoma jurisdictional customers of each public

utility bears to the total number of regulated

Oklahoma jurisdictional customers of all public

utilities.

2. For interexchange telecommunications companies, resellers,

pay phone service providers and operator service providers, the

allocation may be based on the total regulated Oklahoma

jurisdictional gross operating revenues that each interexchange

telecommunications company, reseller or operator service provider

bears in proportion to the total regulated Oklahoma jurisdictional

gross operating revenue of all public utilities as applied to the

total amount of the assessment to be collected from all public

utilities for each year.

C. Any assessment levied pursuant to this section shall be

recoverable as an operating expense to the public utility and shall

be included in a utility's base rates or basic monthly service

charge. The Corporation Commission shall take such action necessary

to ensure recovery of the assessment by a public utility during the

period for which it is levied.

D. The Corporation Commission may provide that each public

utility shall pay any assessment levied pursuant to this section on

a quarterly basis. Notice of the annual assessment shall be sent by

certified mail, return receipt requested, to each public utility.

Each public utility shall pay the amount assessed to the Commission

for deposit to the Public Utility Regulation Revolving Fund created

in subsection E of this section. A public utility may, at its

discretion, pay its annual assessment prior to the due date of the

quarterly payments.

E. Any assessment collected by the Commission pursuant to this

section shall be deposited in the Public Utility Regulation

Revolving Fund hereby created. The fund shall be a continuing fund

not subject to fiscal year limitations and shall consist of the

monies received by the Commission from any assessment levied

pursuant to the provisions of this section. All monies accruing to

the credit of the fund are hereby appropriated and may be budgeted

and expended by the Commission to pay the costs, both direct and

indirect, of the Public Utilities Division incurred to regulate

public utilities. Expenditures from said fund shall be made upon

warrants issued by the State Treasurer against claims filed as

prescribed by law with the Director of the Office of Management and

Enterprise Services for approval and payment.

F. The Legislature shall establish budgetary limits for the

Public Utility Division of the Corporation Commission. Any

Oklahoma Statutes - Title 17. Corporation Commission

assessment levied pursuant to this section shall not exceed the

amount of the budgetary limits and indirect costs for related

support functions established by the Legislature for any fiscal

year. Budgetary limits will stay in effect until superseded by

further action of the Legislature.

G. For purposes of this section, "public utility" means:

1. A public utility as defined by Section 151 of this title,

excluding those companies encompassed by paragraph (d) of Section

151 of this title;

2. Any telephone or telecommunications company subject to

Section 131 et seq. of this title, including interexchange

telecommunications companies or such other telecommunications

companies as defined by OCC Rule OAC 165:55-1-4, resellers as

defined by OCC Rule OAC 165:56-1-4 and operator service providers as

defined by OCC Rule OAC 165:57-1-4; and

3. Any association or cooperative corporation doing business

under the Rural Electric Cooperative Act except for generation and

transmission associations or cooperative corporations, or

transmission associations or cooperative corporations.

H. It is the intention of the Legislature that this entire

section is an amendment to and alteration of Sections 18 through 34,

inclusive, of Article IX of the Constitution of the State of

Oklahoma, as authorized by Section 35 of Article IX of said

Constitution.

Added by Laws 1993, c. 278, § 43, operative Sept. 1, 1993. Amended

by Laws 1996, c. 91, § 1, eff. July 1, 1996; Laws 1998, c. 126, § 1,

eff. July 1, 1998; Laws 2012, c. 304, § 60; Laws 2017, c. 143, § 1,

eff. July 1, 2017.