HB 0609

HB 609-FN-A - AS INTRODUCED

AN ACT relative to public interest payphones.

SPONSORS: Rep. Phinizy, Sull 23; Rep. Gorman, Hills 62; Rep. Alger, Graf 14; Sen. Estabrook, Dist 21

I. Establishes procedures for designating and funding public interest payphones.

II. Establishes a temporary public interest payphone surcharge of $0.01 per month per telephone line to be levied from July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2004.

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Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

AN ACT relative to public interest payphones.

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

1 New Subparagraph; General Revenue Exceptions; Public Interest Payphone Fund. Amend RSA 6:12, I by inserting after subparagraph (lllllllll) the following new subparagraph:

(mmmmmmmmm) Moneys deposited in the public interest payphone fund established in RSA 370-B:2.

2 New Chapter; Public Interest Payphones. Amend RSA by inserting after chapter 370-A the following new chapter:

II. "Federal Telecommunications Act" means the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, Public Law 104-458, 110 Stat. 56.

III. "Public interest payphone" means a payphone or payphone site which the commission has determined under the provisions of this chapter to be necessary in the interest of public health, safety, or welfare, where there would otherwise not be a payphone.

I. There is hereby established a public interest payphone fund to be used by the commission to fund the maintenance of public interest payphones pursuant to the provisions of this chapter.

II. The fund shall be nonlapsing and continually appropriated for the purposes of funding the maintenance of public interest payphones. The state treasurer shall invest the moneys deposited in the fund as provided by law. Interest earned on moneys deposited in the fund shall be deposited into the fund.

III. Funding of public interest payphones under this chapter shall be fair and equitable, shall be competitively neutral, and shall not involve the use of subsidies prohibited by the Federal Telecommunications Act, or rely on federal universal service support.

I. At least 60 days prior to removal of any payphone, the payphone provider shall provide written notice of intended removal of the payphone.

II. Notice shall be provided to the owner of the property where the payphone is located, the commission, the office of consumer advocate, the governing body of the town where the payphone is located, the police department in the town where the payphone is located, and emergency services providers serving the town where the payphone is located. Notice shall also be published at least once in a newspaper of statewide circulation, as well as in a local newspaper of general circulation in the town where the payphone is located, if any. Notice shall further be posted on or at the payphone that the provider intends to remove.

III. The notice shall include the commission's address and toll-free telephone number, and a statement that questions or concerns regarding removal of the payphone may be directed to the commission. The notice shall further state the date of planned removal, that a petition may be filed with the commission by any person for designation of the payphone as a public interest payphone, the deadline for submitting a petition, and that the payphone may not be removed if it is designated by the commission as a public interest payphone.

I. The commission shall, by rule adopted pursuant to RSA 541-A, establish criteria for designating a payphone as a public interest payphone. The criteria shall be consistent with the provisions of the Federal Telecommunications Act relating to public interest payphones.

II. A payphone may be designated as a public interest payphone if it is in service at the time of the petition to the commission, or if it was removed after the effective date of the Federal Telecommunications Act and prior to the effective date of this section.

III.(a) Any person may petition to have a payphone, or payphone site where a payphone has been removed prior to the effective date of this section, designated as a public interest payphone.

(b) A petition to designate a payphone as a public interest payphone shall be submitted to the commission at least 30 days prior to the date of removal contained in the notice under RSA 370-B:3.

(c) Where a payphone was removed after the effective date of the Federal Telecommunications Act but before the effective date of this section, a petition to designate the site as a public interest payphone may be filed at any time.

IV. Within 30 days of receipt of a petition, the commission shall hold a hearing on the petition. If the commission does not make a final determination on the petition prior to the planned removal date, the commission is authorized to order that removal be delayed for a reasonable time pending a final determination.

V. Once a payphone has been designated as a public interest payphone, the payphone provider may not remove and shall maintain the payphone. Once a payphone site has been designated as a public interest payphone, the commission may order the provider that removed the payphone to reinstall and maintain it.

VI. A payphone provider required to maintain a public interest payphone may request from the commission compensation for reasonable costs of maintaining the payphone, and, in the case of a payphone site, reasonable installation costs. Requests for compensation for costs of maintenance shall be made on a quarterly basis. Requests for compensation for costs of installation shall be made within 60 days after installation. The commission shall review and approve requests for funding. Funding requests granted under this paragraph shall be paid from the public interest payphone fund.

VIII. Every payphone provider shall provide annually to the commission a list of its current payphone locations.

3 Public Interest Payphone Surcharge. Public interest payphones shall be funded through a surcharge to be levied upon each residence and business telephone exchange line, including PBX trunks and Centrex lines, each individual commercial mobile radio service number, and each semi-public and public coin and public access line. The surcharge shall be $0.01 per month per line to be levied from July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2004. In the case of local exchange telephone companies, the surcharge shall be contained within tariffs or rate schedules filed with the public utilities commission and shall be billed on a monthly basis by each local exchange telephone company. In the case of an entity which provides commercial mobile radio service the surcharge shall be billed to each customer on a monthly basis and shall not be subject to any state or local tax; the surcharge shall be collected by the commercial mobile radio service provider, and may be identified on the customer's bill. Each local exchange telephone company or entity which provides commercial mobile radio service shall remit the surcharge amounts on a monthly basis to the public utilities commission, to be forwarded to the state treasurer for deposit in the public interest payphone fund established in RSA 370-B:2.

4 Repeal. RSA 374:22-p, VI-VII, relative to funding of public interest payphones, is repealed.

AN ACT relative to public interest payphones.

Due to time constraints, the Office of Legislative Budget Assistant is unable to provide a fiscal note for this bill at this time. When completed, the fiscal note will be forwarded to the House Clerk's Office.