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S1477......................................................by STATE AFFAIRS MOBILE WIRELESS SERVICE - Amends existing law to provide that certain surcharges shall be imposed only on customers of mobile wireless carriers with a place of primary use in Idaho; and to define "place of primary use." 02/26 Senate intro - 1st rdg - to printing 02/27 Rpt prt - to St Aff 03/04 Rpt out - rec d/p - to 2nd rdg 03/05 2nd rdg - to 3rd rdg 03/07 3rd rdg - PASSED - 35-0-0 AYES -- Andreason, Boatright, Branch(Bartlett), Brandt, Bunderson, Burtenshaw, Cameron, Darrington, Davis, Deide, Dunklin, Frasure, Geddes, Goedde, Hawkins, Hill, Ingram, Ipsen, Keough, King-Barrutia, Little, Lodge, Marley, Noh, Richardson, Risch, Sandy, Schroeder, Sims, Sorensen, Stegner, Stennett, Thorne, Wheeler, Williams NAYS -- None Absent and excused -- None Floor Sponsor - Stennett Title apvd - to House 03/08 House intro - 1st rdg - to St Aff 03/11 Rpt out - rec d/p - to 2nd rdg 03/12 2nd rdg - to 3rd rdg 03/13 3rd rdg - PASSED - 67-0-3 AYES -- Aikele, Barraclough, Barrett, Bedke, Bell, Bieter, Black, Block, Boe, Bolz, Bradford, Bruneel, Callister, Campbell, Clark, Collins, Crow, Cuddy, Deal, Denney, Ellis, Ellsworth, Eskridge, Field(13), Field(20), Gould, Hammond, Harwood, Henbest, Higgins, Hornbeck, Jaquet, Jones, Kellogg, Kendell, Kunz, Lake, Langford, Loertscher, Mader, Martinez, McKague, Meyer, Mortensen, Moyle, Pearce, Pischner, Pomeroy, Raybould, Ridinger, Roberts, Robison, Sali, Schaefer, Sellman, Shepherd, Smith(33), Smith(23), Smylie, Stevenson, Stone, Tilman, Trail, Wheeler, Wood, Young, Mr. Speaker NAYS -- None Absent and excused -- Gagner, Hadley, Montgomery Floor Sponsor - Ellsworth Title apvd - to Senate 03/13 To enrol 03/14 Rpt enrol - Pres signed Sp signed 03/15 To Governor 03/26 Governor signed Session Law Chapter 311 Effective: 07/01/02, All bills issued after 08/01/02
|||| LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF IDAHO |||| Fifty-sixth Legislature Second Regular Session - 2002IN THE SENATE SENATE BILL NO. 1477 BY STATE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE 1 AN ACT 2 RELATING TO TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICE; AMENDING SECTION 56-904, IDAHO CODE, 3 TO PROVIDE THAT CERTAIN SURCHARGES SHALL BE IMPOSED ONLY ON CUSTOMERS OF 4 MOBILE WIRELESS CARRIERS WITH A PLACE OF PRIMARY USE IN IDAHO AND TO 5 DEFINE "PLACE OF PRIMARY USE"; PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE AND PROVIDING 6 APPLICATION. 7 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Idaho: 8 SECTION 1. That Section 56-904, Idaho Code, be, and the same is hereby 9 amended to read as follows: 10 56-904. RECOVERY OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICE REVENUE REDUCTIONS -- 11 ADMINISTRATION. (1) The Idaho public utilities commission shall determine and 12 impose a uniform statewide monthly surcharge on each end user's business, res- 13 idential and wireless access service. The surcharge shall be an amount suffi- 14 cient to reimburse each carrier of residential basic local exchange service 15 for the total amount of telephone assistance discounts provided as well as the 16 carrier's and the administrator's expenses of administering the plan. Such 17 surcharge shall be effective concurrent with the discounts given eligible sub- 18 scribers. The surcharge shall be explicitly stated on end user billings but 19 shall not be imposed on eligible subscribers. 20 (2) The Idaho public utilities commission may adopt rules or issue orders 21 necessary to receive matching federal low income telephone assistance and to 22 implement the Idaho telephone assistance program, including procedures for 23 adjustment and true-up of the subscriber surcharge. The commission may con- 24 tract with a neutral third party to collect the surcharge, distribute assis- 25 tance revenues, and perform other tasks as assigned. 26 (3) All carriers of telecommunications services shall remit the assis- 27 tance surcharge revenues to the fund administrator designated by the commis- 28 sion on a monthly basis, unless less frequent remittances are authorized by 29 order of the public utilities commission. The administrator shall distribute 30 telecommunication service assistance program revenues monthly to eligible 31 telecommunication carriers in an amount that equals their costs of administer- 32 ing the program and the monthly discount provided to eligible subscribers. 33 (4) The surcharge imposed in subsection (1) of this section, when col- 34 lected from customers of mobile wireless carriers, shall be imposed only on 35 customers with a place of primary use in Idaho. As used in this section and as 36 defined in 4 U.S.C. section 124, "place of primary use" means the residential 37 street address or the primary business street address in Idaho where the 38 customer's use of the wireless service primarily occurs. 39 SECTION 2. This act shall be in full force and effect on and after July 40 1, 2002, and shall apply to bills issued after August 1, 2002.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE RS 12124 Passed by Congress in 2000 (PL106-252) the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act (MTSA) develops national, uniform rules for 'sourcing' calls that is, assigning which state and local jurisdictions have the power to tax them. It does not change tax rates or bases under existing state laws and local ordinances. The legislation recognizes that rules based upon wireline communications do not work for mobile telephones. For example, cell phone calls sometimes cross local and state boundaries during a call. Also, the ‘two out of three rule that determines when states have nexus to tax a call (origination, termination and billing) do not always work for mobile calls. A customer who signs up for wireless service will designate a primary business address (if the phone is primarily used for business) or a residential address. The applicable taxes at that address - called the place of primary use - will be levied on that customer regardless of where those calls originate or terminate. Under the existing rules, companies had to track each call and sort out which jurisdiction was entitled to tax. These new rules will simplify the billing process and ensure that calls are not subject to multiple taxation, and that they do not escape taxation altogether. The state will lose revenue from out-of-state customers 'roaming' in their states due to the federal pre-emption. This revenue will be lost regardless of whether states pass this legislation or not. However, failure to pass this legislation will prevent states from picking up the new revenue from in-state customers that 'roam' in other states. The only tax currently levied on cell phone calls is the surcharge by the Idaho Public Utilities Commission in Idaho Code §56- 904. FISCAL IMPACT None. CONTACT: Roy Eiguren Elizabeth Criner Verizon Wireless Qwest (388-1313) (385-8692) Skip Smyser Ron Williams AT&T Wireless Sprint (342-0777) (344-0077) STATEMENT OF PURPOSE/FISCAL NOTE S 1477