HOUSE BILL 17

50th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2011

INTRODUCED BY

Roberto "Bobby" J. Gonzales

FOR THE SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE

AN ACT

RELATING TO TELECOMMUNICATIONS; ENACTING A NEW SECTION OF THE NEW MEXICO TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT TO PERMIT THE ALLOCATION OF RELOCATION COSTS TO TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANY CUSTOMERS.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     SECTION 1. A new section of the New Mexico Telecommunications Act is enacted to read:

     "[NEW MATERIAL] ALLOCATION OF RELOCATION COSTS TO CUSTOMERS--COMMISSION AUDIT.--

          A. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, telecommunications companies shall be entitled to recover from their retail customers, without a request for a change in rates, the actual costs incurred for the alteration, change, moving or relocation of infrastructure or facilities requested by the state or a political subdivision or instrumentality of the state. Thirty days prior to assessing retail customers a fee to recover actual costs incurred for the alteration, change, moving or relocation of infrastructure or facilities requested by the state or a political subdivision or instrumentality of the state, a telecommunications company shall notify the commission in writing of its intent to impose a fee on the company's retail customers as a separate line item on the customer's bill. The notification to the commission shall contain information regarding the total relocation costs incurred by the project, the calculation of the fee, the time period in which the fee will be recovered, the number of customers affected and an affidavit stating that only actual costs are being recovered and that reasonable efforts were made to mitigate the relocation costs. The telecommunications company may begin assessing the fee after the expiration of the thirty-day notice provided to the commission.

          B. Upon petition by an interested party or on its own motion, the commission may conduct an investigation to verify that all information has been provided and that the fee intended to be imposed by a telecommunications company recovers the actual costs incurred for the relocation of facilities and that the telecommunications company engaged in all reasonable efforts to mitigate the relocation costs. The commission shall also determine that the time period for recovery of the fee and the number of customers affected is reasonable. The commission shall complete its investigation within sixty days of the date that a petition is filed or that the commission commences an investigation on its own motion, whichever is earlier. If, based on evidence presented at a hearing, the commission finds that a telecommunications company is not recovering its actual costs incurred, the commission may order modifications or adjustments to a fee imposed pursuant to this section and to any required customer credits so that the telecommunications company may recover its actual costs.

          C. As used in this section:

                (1) "actual costs" includes all capital and non-capital costs, not otherwise recoverable, incurred to relocate infrastructure or facilities, as well as all costs incurred to remove any infrastructure or facilities, up to a maximum amount in any twelve-month period of one million dollars ($1,000,000); "actual costs" does not include the cost of upgrading the facility being relocated; and

                (2) "infrastructure or facilities" includes infrastructure or facilities used to provide interstate and intrastate services, including regulated, unregulated and deregulated services."

     SECTION 2. APPLICABILITY.--The provisions of this act apply to costs incurred after July 1, 2011 to relocate infrastructure or facilities as well as all costs incurred after July 1, 2011 to remove any infrastructure or facilities.

     SECTION 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.--The effective date of the provisions of this act is July 1, 2011.

- 4 -