2007 Minnesota Statutes

237.295 ASSESSMENT OF REGULATORY EXPENSES.
    Subdivision 1. Filing fee for new authority. An application for a new authority must
be accompanied by a payment not to exceed $2,000 as determined by the Public Utilities
Commission. This fee will be reviewed annually and adjusted accordingly.
    Subd. 2. Assessment of costs. The department and commission shall quarterly, at least 30
days before the start of each quarter, estimate the total of their expenditures in the performance
of their duties relating to telephone companies, other than amounts chargeable to telephone
companies under subdivision 1, 5, or 6. The remainder must be assessed by the department to the
telephone companies operating in this state in proportion to their respective gross jurisdictional
operating revenues during the last calendar year. The assessment must be paid into the state
treasury within 30 days after the bill has been transmitted via mail, personal delivery, or electronic
service to the telephone companies. The bill constitutes notice of the assessment and demand
of payment. The total amount that may be assessed to the telephone companies under this
subdivision may not exceed three-eighths of one percent of the total gross jurisdictional operating
revenues during the calendar year. The assessment for the third quarter of each fiscal year must
be adjusted to compensate for the amount by which actual expenditures by the commission
and department for the preceding fiscal year were more or less than the estimated expenditures
previously assessed. A telephone company with gross jurisdictional operating revenues of less
than $5,000 is exempt from assessments under this subdivision.
    Subd. 3. Objection. Within 30 days after the date of the transmittal of any bill as provided
by subdivisions 1, 2, 5, and 6, the parties to the proceeding, against which the bill has been
assessed, may file with the commission objections setting out the grounds upon which it is
claimed the bill is excessive, erroneous, unlawful, or invalid. The commission shall within 60
days issue an order in accordance with its findings. The order is appealable in the same manner as
other final orders of the commission.
    Subd. 4. Interest imposed. The amounts assessed against any telephone company or other
party that is not paid after 30 days after the transmittal of a notice advising the telephone company
or other party of the amount assessed against it, draw interest at the rate of six percent per annum;
and, upon failure to pay the assessment, the attorney general shall proceed by action in the name
of the state against the telephone company or other party to collect the amount due, together
with interest and the cost of the suit.
    Subd. 5. Administrative hearing costs; appropriation. Any amounts billed to the
commission or the department by the Office of Administrative Hearings for contested case
hearings held pursuant to section 237.25 must be assessed by the commissioner or the department
against the parties to the proceeding. The assessment must be paid into the state treasury within
30 days after a bill, which constitutes notice of the assessment and demand for payment of it,
has been transmitted to the parties. Money received must be credited to a special account and is
appropriated to the commissioner or the department for payment to the Office of Administrative
Hearings.
    Subd. 6. Extended area service balloting account; appropriation. The extended area
service balloting account is created as a separate account in the special revenue fund in the state
treasury. The commission shall render separate bills to telephone companies only for direct
balloting costs incurred by the commission. The bill constitutes notice of the assessment and
demand of payment. The amount of a bill assessed by the commission under this subdivision
must be paid by the telephone company into the state treasury within 30 days from the date of
assessment. Money received under this subdivision must be credited to the extended area service
balloting account and is appropriated to the commission.
History: 1978 c 694 s 3; 1979 c 50 s 24; 1980 c 614 s 120,121; 1981 c 357 s 74,75; 1989 c
74 s 5,6; 1992 c 478 s 5; 1993 c 369 s 68,69; 1998 c 345 s 5; 1Sp2001 c 4 art 6 s 77; 1Sp2005 c 1
art 4 s 55,56; 2007 c 10 s 13