Testimony of Rep. Sean Flaherty to the Joint Committee on Utilities and Energy:

Members of the Joint Committee on Utilities and Energy, I am Sean Flaherty, and I represent District 127.

It’s my pleasure to present to you, LD 1578, An Act To Provide for Equitable Sharing by Service Providers of the Costs of the Public Utilities Commission and the Office of the Public Advocate.

Simply put, this bill, if enacted, will bring the newer forms of telecom providers into the pool of communication technologies which are assessed by us, the legislature, to help fund both the PUC and the OPA.   Specifically, this bill affects some newer forms of telecommunications which have been commercialized in Maine since the assessment law was first enacted.

Let me be clear, this will not increase the funding the PUC and OPA receive, but it will broaden the pool of entities who will share the cost of the budgets of the PUC and OPA. By ensuring that all telecommunications technologies share in the assessment, it would actually slightly reduce the portions of the PUC and OPA budgets which are currently being paid by utilities covered by the assessments law.

More veteran members of this committee will recall that this idea was first proposed by the Telephone Association of Maine (TAM) a few years ago during the this Committee’s periodic review of the Public Utilities Commission.

However, at that time, the committee felt it would be better if the issue were put forward as a separate bill.  As a result, we now have the opportunity.