No. SB 1420
Filed under Local Government.
Local Utility Revenues; Prohibiting counties and municipalities, respectively, from transferring for specified purposes revenues collected from providing utility services; requiring revenue surpluses to be returned to the ratepayers; requiring county and municipal utilities, respectively, to develop budget forecasts and strategies that meet certain requirements; prohibiting counties and municipalities, respectively, from charging a higher rate or adding a surcharge to certain customers, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDCounties and municipalities that run water, sewer, stormwater, electric, or gas utilities can no longer move utility revenue into the general fund, use it for unrelated projects, or borrow against it for non-utility purposes; any surplus must go back to ratepayers.
Every five years, the utility must produce a forward-looking budget forecast covering maintenance, population growth, new technology, and storm or flood damage. Violating any part of these rules risks losing state funding.
Outside their borders, a county or city may not charge a higher rate or add a surcharge beyond what it actually costs to serve a more distant location -- a separate, cost-based limit alongside the existing percentage caps for municipal water and sewer rates.
Separately, the bill narrows the older municipal rate law: a city can no longer add a 25 percent surcharge for customers who simply get the same rate as in-city customers, though the 50 percent ceiling on the 'just and equitable' rate option survives.
AIA county or municipality that earns revenue from providing utility service may not transfer that revenue to pay for general government functions, special projects, or debt taken on for those purposes.
AIAny surplus in utility revenue collected must go back to the ratepayers themselves, whether as a rebate, a credit, or a new appliance or service, rather than being kept by the local government.
AIA county or municipality may not charge a customer outside its boundaries a higher rate, or add a surcharge, beyond what it actually costs to serve a location farther from the utility's central operations.
AIThe clause letting a municipality add a 25 percent surcharge on top of the mirrored in-city rate for outside customers is deleted, leaving that method as simply the same rate with no add-on.
AIEvery five years, the utility must produce a budget forecast and strategy addressing maintenance, population growth, new technology costs, and damage from storms, floods, and water shortages.
AIThe 25 percent surcharge step for the equitable-rate method is deleted, but the method's outer limit survives: those rates still may not exceed 50 percent more than what the municipality charges inside its boundaries.
AIIf a county or municipality violates this section, the state can withhold some or all of the state funds its utility would otherwise be entitled to receive.