2006 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 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 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 mailing 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 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 or other
party that is not paid after 30 days after the mailing of a notice advising the telephone company
or other party 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 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 shall be assessed by the commissioner or the department
against the parties to the proceeding. 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 parties. 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.
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