By:  Bailey                                            H.B. No. 142
       73R1448 CBH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the authority of the Public Utility Commission of Texas
    1-3  to increase a utility's rates because of a change in tax liability.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 43(j), Public Utility Regulatory Act
    1-6  (Article 1446c, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read
    1-7  as follows:
    1-8        (j)  The commission on its own motion or on the petition of a
    1-9  utility shall provide for the adjustment of a utility's billing to
   1-10  reflect any increase or decrease of tax liability of the utility to
   1-11  the state resulting from House Bill 11, Acts of the 72nd
   1-12  Legislature, 1st Called Session, 1991, and that is attributable to
   1-13  activities that are subject to the jurisdiction of the commission.
   1-14  The commission may adjust a utility's billing to reflect an
   1-15  increase of tax liability only if the commission finds, after a
   1-16  public hearing, that the utility's increased tax liability will
   1-17  result in the utility receiving a rate of return on invested
   1-18  capital that is unreasonably low.  Any adjustment to billings under
   1-19  this section must be apportioned pro-rata to all types and classes
   1-20  of service provided by the utility and is effective only until the
   1-21  commission alters the adjustment as provided by this subsection or
   1-22  enters an order for the utility under this section or Section 42 of
   1-23  this Act.  The adjustment of billings must be made effective at the
   1-24  same time as the increase or decrease of tax liability resulting
    2-1  from House Bill 11, Acts of the 72nd Legislature, 1st Called
    2-2  Session, 1991, or as soon after as is reasonably practical.  Each
    2-3  year after any original adjustment, the commission shall review the
    2-4  utility's increase or decrease of tax liability resulting from
    2-5  House Bill 11, Acts of the 72nd Legislature, 1st Called Session,
    2-6  1991, and alter the adjustment to the extent authorized under this
    2-7  subsection to reflect the increase or decrease.  A proceeding under
    2-8  this subsection is not a rate case under this section.
    2-9        SECTION 2.  This Act applies to a proceeding in which a final
   2-10  order has not been issued before the effective date of this Act.
   2-11        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-12  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-13  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-14  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-15  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-16  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-17  passage, and it is so enacted.