1997 Minnesota Statutes

     237.295 Assessment of regulatory expenses. 

    Subdivision 1.    Payment for investigations.  Whenever 
 the department or commission, in a proceeding upon its own 
 motion, on complaint, or upon an application to it, considers it 
 necessary, in order to carry out the duties imposed on it, to 
 investigate the books, accounts, practices, and activities of, 
 or make appraisals of the property of, a telephone company, or 
 to render engineering or accounting services to a telephone 
 company, the telephone company shall pay the expenses reasonably 
 attributable to the investigation, appraisal, or service.  The 
 department and commission shall ascertain the expenses, and the 
 department shall render a bill for those expenses to the 
 telephone company, either at the conclusion of the 
 investigation, appraisal, or services, or from time to time 
 during its progress.  The bill constitutes notice of the 
 assessment and a demand for payment.  The amount of the bills 
 assessed by the department under this subdivision must be paid 
 by the telephone company into the state treasury within 30 days 
 from the date of assessment.  The total amount, in a calendar 
 year, for which a telephone company may become liable, by reason 
 of costs incurred by the department and commission within that 
 calendar year, may not exceed two-fifths of one percent of the 
 gross jurisdictional operating revenue of the telephone company 
 in the last preceding calendar year.  Direct charges may be 
 assessed without regard to this limitation until the gross 
 jurisdictional operating revenue of the telephone company for 
 the preceding calendar year has been reported for the first 
 time.  Where, under this subdivision, costs are incurred within 
 a calendar year that are in excess of two-fifths of one percent 
 of the gross jurisdictional operating revenues, the excess costs 
 are not chargeable as part of the remainder under subdivision 2, 
 but must be paid out of the general appropriation of the 
 department. 

    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 mailed 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 one-eighth 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.    Objections.  Within 30 days after the date 
 of the mailing of any bill as provided by subdivisions 1 and 2, 
 the telephone company 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 
 provide for a contested case hearing and issue an order in 
 accordance with its findings.  The order shall be appealable in 
 the same manner as other final orders of the commission. 

    Subd. 4.    Interest imposed.  The amounts assessed 
 against any telephone company not paid after 30 days after the 
 mailing of a notice advising the telephone company of the amount 
 assessed against it, shall 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 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 telephone contested case 
 hearings shall be assessed by the commissioner or the department 
 against the telephone company.  The assessment shall 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 mailed to the telephone company.  Money received 
 shall 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 under section 237.161.  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. 

    HIST: 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