BILL NUMBER: AB 1180	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  JANUARY 13, 2016
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  JANUARY 4, 2016
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 9, 2015

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Cristina Garcia

                        FEBRUARY 27, 2015

   An act to add and repeal Section 755.5 of the Public Utilities
Code, relating to utility service.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1180, as amended, Cristina Garcia. Rates and charges for water
service: payment transaction fees.
   Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory
authority over public utilities, including electrical, gas, and
water corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the
rates and charges for every public utility, and requires that those
rates and charges be just and reasonable. Existing law authorizes an
electrical, gas, or water corporation to offer credit card and debit
card bill payment options, if approved by the commission, and, upon
approval, authorizes an electrical, gas, or water corporation to
recover, through an individual customer transaction fee, reasonable
transaction costs incurred by the electrical, gas, or water
corporation from those customers that choose those methods of
payment. Existing law includes statements of legislative intent
relative to electrical, gas, and water corporations offering
customers the option to pay by credit card or debit card.
   This bill would, until January 1,  2025,  
2022,  authorize a water corporation with more than 10,000
connections to seek commission approval to operate a pilot program
designed to evaluate customer interest in, and utilization of, bill
payment options, including, but not limited to, credit card and debit
card bill payment options, for their water bills and to assess the
cost-effectiveness of, and public interests served by, customer
access to those bill payment options. The bill would require the
commission to allow a water corporation to recover the reasonable
expenses incurred by the water corporation in providing its customers
with these bill payment options, and to allow water corporations to
not impose a transaction fee on its customers for using these bill
payment options.  The bill would prohibit the costs of a pilot
program from being collected by low-income customers who participate
in specified programs, and would require a water corporation that is
operating a pilot program to provide certain notifications to its
customers.  The bill would require the commission,  in
consultation with the Low-Income Oversight Board,  by July 1,
 2023,  2020,  to submit a report  to
specified legislative committees  that includes  an
assessment of the use of credit cards by low-income customers to
avoid service disconnections, an assessment of the impact of the use
of credit cards for water bills on household debt burden, and an
assessment of  data regarding customer utilization and the
cost-effectiveness of the bill payment options provided under the
pilot program. The bill would require the report, based on 
this data   these assessments  and an assessment of
the public interests served by these bill payment options, to
evaluate the usefulness of an individual customer transaction fee and
include a recommendation regarding individual customer transaction
fees for credit card and debit card bill payments accepted by water
corporations.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 755.5 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
   755.5.  (a) A water corporation with more than 10,000 service
connections may seek, through its general rate case application,
commission approval to operate a pilot program designed to evaluate
customer interest in, and utilization of, bill payment options,
including, but not limited to, credit card and debit card bill
payment options, for their water bills and to assess the
cost-effectiveness of, and public interests served by, customer
access to those bill payment options.
   (b) Notwithstanding Section 755, the commission shall allow a
water corporation to recover the reasonable expenses incurred by the
water corporation in providing to its customers bill payment options
pursuant to subdivision (a) and shall not require the water
corporation to impose a transaction fee on its customers. 
   (c) The costs of a pilot program adopted pursuant to subdivision
(a) may not be recovered from customers participating in the
California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) program established
pursuant to Section 739.1 or in a water rate relief program for
low-income ratepayers established pursuant to Section 739.8. 

   (d) The commission shall require a water corporation that is
operating a pilot program to notify its customers that the water
corporation is participating in a pilot program and that the pilot
program may not continue, pending an assessment of the costs and
benefits of the pilot program to customers.  
   (c) 
    (e)  The commission shall ensure that accepting bill
payment options pursuant to subdivision (a) neither increases nor
decreases the rate of return of the water corporation. 
   (d) 
    (f)  This section shall remain in effect only until
January 1,  2025,   2022,  and as of that
date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that is enacted
before January 1, 2025,   2022,  deletes or
extends that date.
  SEC. 2.  By July 1,  2023,  the commission
  2020, the commission, in consultation with the
Low-Income Oversight Board established pursuant to Section 382.1 of
the Public Utilities Code,  shall submit to the Assembly
Committee on Utilities and Commerce and the Senate Committee on
Energy, Utilities and Communications a report that  includes,
  includes an assessment of the use of credit cards by
low-income customers to avoid service disconnections, an assessment
of the impact of the use of credit cards for water bills on household
debt burden, and an assessment of data, considered  on an
aggregated basis,  data  regarding customer
utilization and the cost-effectiveness of the bill payment options
provided by the water corporations operating pilot programs pursuant
to Section 755.5 of the Public Utilities Code. Based on  this
data   these assessments  and an assessment of the
public interests served by providing these bill payment options, the
report shall evaluate the usefulness of the individual customer
transaction fee required by Section 755 of the Public Utilities Code,
and include a recommendation regarding individual customer
transaction fees for credit card and debit card payments accepted by
water corporations.