STAND. COM. REP. NO. 224-04

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: H.B. No. 2434

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce, to which was referred H.B. No. 2434 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO APPLICATIONS SEEKING GENERAL RATE INCREASES FILED BY PUBLIC UTILITIES HAVING ANNUAL GROSS REVENUES OF LESS THAN $2,000,000,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to:

(1) Allow small utilities with gross revenues of less than $2,000,000, annually, to react to changing conditions effectively, and recover any increases in operating costs by seeking rate increases;

(2) Expedite agency review of rate increase applications of public utilities;

(3) Reduce the costs that are currently incurred by the utilities, Division of Consumer Advocacy, and Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to process rate increase requests; and

(4) Improve the Consumer Advocate's efficiencies by allowing staff to focus on more critical matters.

The Division of Consumer Advocacy of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and PUC testified in support of this administration bill.

Your Committee finds that utility companies file rate increase applications infrequently due to the time and cost of processing such filings and often seek double-digit rate increases in order to recover the increases in operating costs that have been incurred since the last filing. As a result, consumers face hardships in coping with high increases in their utility bills.

This bill proposes that PUC develop a standard application form setting forth the specified information needed to determine the reasonableness of the proposals for rate increases, and to standardize financial accounting and reports for these public utilities. These standardized reports will help to reduce costs and improve efficiencies in the review process.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2434 and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce,

 

____________________________

KENNETH T. HIRAKI, Chair