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HOUSE MEMORIAL 39
47
TH LEGISLATURE
- STATE OF NEW MEXICO -
SECOND SESSION
, 2006
INTRODUCED BY
Ben Lujan
A MEMORIAL
REQUESTING THE PUBLIC REGULATION COMMISSION TO STUDY THE
BILLING PRACTICES OF PUBLIC UTILITIES, INCLUDING OVER-
COLLECTION AND UNDER-COLLECTION.
WHEREAS, public utilities, including rural electric
cooperatives, have a responsibility to collect their costs of
service through rates approved by the public regulation
commission from customers receiving electric service in New
Mexico; and
WHEREAS, occasionally there are billing errors due to
administrative or clerical error, system failure, improper
installation or malfunction of electric meters or other causes
that result in an under-collection or over-collection of
revenues from customers; and
WHEREAS, a public utility's failure to collect from a
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.162017.1
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customer the full amount of revenues authorized by the public
regulation commission for the service that has been provided
creates a burden upon other customers; and
WHEREAS, a public utility that has not discovered a
billing error for a long period of time results in a
significant shortfall of revenues to offset the actual cost of
service and thereby imposes additional costs on the other
customers; and
WHEREAS, in at least one instance, a utility failed to
collect several millions of dollars over a nearly three-year
period from a customer due to an improperly installed meter by
the public utility's power supplier; and
WHEREAS, the matter was ultimately resolved with full
payment of the amounts due to the utility;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the public
regulation commission be requested to investigate the frequency
of billing errors resulting in a significant under-collection
of money owed to public utilities; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the public regulation
commission study the cause and frequency of billing errors by
public utilities that result in a significant under-collection
of revenues and the resulting impact on all of the public
utility's customers, and that the commission report its
findings, conclusions and remedies to the legislative finance
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.162017.1
committee and the New Mexico legislative council by December,
2006; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the public regulation
commission determine and report to the legislative finance
committee and the New Mexico legislative council, with respect
to significant under-collections of money from a customer how
and in what manner the public utility will refund money to its
customers at the time that collection is finally made and what,
if any, obstacles would prevent the public utility from
immediately refunding this money to those customers who were
adversely impacted by the under-collection; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the public regulation
commission report to the legislative finance committee and the
legislative council on the number of significant under-
collections that have occurred by a public utility in the past
three years, the cause for such under-collections and the
manner in which each instance was resolved and how customers
were protected from the adverse impact of the public utility's
failure to initially collect the proper amount; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
transmitted to the public regulation commission, the chair of
the legislative finance committee and the co-chairs of the New
Mexico legislative council.
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