Senate Bill sb1922

    Florida Senate - 2004                                  SB 1922

    By Senator Bennett





    21-1447-04

  1                      A bill to be entitled

  2         An act relating to regulatory assessment fees;

  3         amending s. 367.145, F.S.; requiring large

  4         water and wastewater utilities to pay the fee

  5         semiannually; requiring small utilities with

  6         revenues less than $200,000 to pay annually;

  7         providing an effective date.

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  9  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

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11         Section 1.  Subsection (1) of section 367.145, Florida

12  Statutes, is amended to read:

13         367.145  Regulatory assessment and application fees.--

14         (1)  The commission shall set by rule a regulatory

15  assessment fee that each utility must pay in accordance with

16  s. 350.113(3); however, each small utility with annual

17  revenues of less than $200,000 shall pay once a year in

18  conjunction with filing its annual financial report required

19  by commission rule.  Notwithstanding any provision of law to

20  the contrary, the amount of the regulatory assessment fee

21  shall not exceed 4.5 percent of the gross revenues of the

22  utility derived from intrastate business, excluding sales for

23  resale made to a regulated company.

24         (a)  A governmental authority to which ownership or

25  control of a utility is transferred is not liable for any fees

26  owed the commission by the utility as of the date of transfer.

27  However, whenever a purchase at wholesale is made of any water

28  or wastewater service and a fee is paid or payable thereon by

29  the selling utility and the utility purchasing such water or

30  wastewater service resells the same directly to customers, the

31  purchasing utility is entitled to, and must receive, credit on

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    Florida Senate - 2004                                  SB 1922
    21-1447-04




 1  such fees as may be due by it under this section to the extent

 2  of the fee paid or payable upon such water or wastewater

 3  service by the utility from which such purchase was made.  All

 4  such fee payments and penalties must be deposited in

 5  accordance with s. 350.113.

 6         (b)  In addition to the penalties and interest

 7  otherwise provided, the commission may impose a penalty upon a

 8  utility for failure to pay regulatory assessment fees in a

 9  timely manner in accordance with s. 367.161.

10         Section 2.  This act shall take effect July 1, 2004.

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13                          SENATE SUMMARY

14    Requires water and wastewater utilities with annual
      revenues of less than $200,000 to pay the regulatory
15    assessment fee once a year and all other utilities to pay
      the fee semiannually.
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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.