Ind. House Commerce Committee passed 2 bills that would give Ind....
Ind. House Commerce Committee passed 2 bills that would give Ind. Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC): (1) New power to discipline telephone companies and other utilities that violated its rules. (2) Jurisdiction over utility mergers and acquisitions. Both bills passed…
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on 8-5 party-line votes Thurs., with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed. HB-1181 would give IURC power to fine utilities up to 3% of annual Ind. revenues for violating service quality rules and other regulations. Originally, bill called for 15% fine but Democrats agreed that was too harsh. HB-1924 would give IURC oversight over all utility mergers and acquisitions. Both bills were legislature’s response to Ameritech-SBC merger of 1999 and Ameritech’s severe service quality problems last year. Merger bill addresses Ind. Supreme Court ruling on Ameritech-SBC merger that agency had no legal authority over utility mergers. Fining bill was written because of IURC’s lack of legal power to fine Ameritech directly for its massive service problems, officials said. IURC Chmn. William McCarty said he supported bill as passed by committee. “We're not interested in a ‘death penalty’ fine,” he said. “Three percent would still have a meaningful impact on a large utility but it wouldn’t put them out of business.” He said fining authority would give IURC enforcement powers similar to those of utility commissions in neighboring states. Currently, IURC must get a county prosecutor to sue offending utility in state courts to collect fines, and law limits fines to $1,000 per day per violation. Had Ameritech been subject to 15% penalty last year, it could have been fined $210 million, about 75% of its Indiana profits, while a 3% fine would total $42 million. Utility groups said they were opposed to any fine based on percentage of revenue and protested that other utilities were being punished for Ameritech’s transgressions.