Telecommunications: prepaid mobile telephony services: state surcharge.

(1) The existing Emergency Telephone Users Surcharge Act generally imposes a surcharge on amounts paid by every person in the state for intrastate telephone service to provide revenues sufficient to fund "911" emergency telephone system costs. Before July 1, 2013, amounts are determined annually by the California Technology Agency, and on and after that date, by the Department of Technology, and upon collection are paid to the State Board of Equalization on a monthly basis by the telephone service supplier and are deposited into the State Treasury to the credit of the State Emergency Telephone Number Account in the General Fund, to be expended for limited purposes, including to pay the Department of General Services for its costs in administration of the "911" emergency telephone number system. Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations, and is authorized to fix just and reasonable rates and charges for services provided by those public utilities. Existing law establishes the Public Utilities Commission Utilities Reimbursement Account and authorizes the PUC to annually determine a fee to be paid by every public utility providing service directly to customers or subscribers and subject to the jurisdiction of the PUC, except for a railroad corporation. The PUC is required to establish the fee, with the approval of the Department of Finance, to produce a total amount equal to that amount established in the authorized PUC budget for the same year, and an appropriate reserve to regulate public utilities, less specified sources of funding. Existing law establishes the state's telecommunications universal service programs and authorizes the PUC to impose charges for the purpose of funding those programs. Pursuant to this authority, the PUC has established 6 end-user surcharges to fund 6 universal service programs. This bill would enact the Prepaid Mobile Telephony Services Surcharge and Collection Act. The bill would establish a prepaid MTS surcharge, as defined, based upon a percentage of the sales price of each retail transaction that occurs in this state for prepaid mobile telephony services, as defined. The prepaid MTS surcharge would include the emergency telephone users surcharge, as defined, and PUC surcharges, as defined. The bill would require a seller, as defined, to collect the prepaid MTS surcharge, as provided, from a prepaid consumer, as defined, and remit the amounts collected to the State Board of Equalization pursuant to the Fee Collection Procedures Law. The bill would require the board, after deducting its administrative expenses, to deposit the amounts collected in the Prepaid Mobile Telephony Services Surcharge Fund, which the bill would establish in the State Treasury, as provided. The bill would require the PUC to annually compute the PUC's reimbursement fee and 6 universal service program fees, to post notice of those fees on its Internet Web site, and to notify the State Board of Equalization of the amounts, which would be adjusted, as specified, and which together would be the PUC surcharges. The bill would require the California Technology Agency to annually compute, as specified, the intrastate portion of the 911 surcharge to be collected on prepaid mobile telephony services to post notice of those charges and to notify the State Board of Equalization of the amount, which would be the emergency telephone users surcharge. Existing law defines mobile telephony services for purposes of the Public Utilities Code. This bill would revise that definition and incorporate that definition for purposes of the Prepaid Mobile Telephony Services Surcharge and Collection Act. (2) Existing law establishes requirements for consumer disclosure and service that are applicable to the advertising and sale of prepaid calling cards, as defined, and prepaid calling services, as defined, including the disclosure of ancillary services, as defined. This bill would except the prepaid MTS surcharge from the definition of ancillary services if the surcharge is disclosed, collected, and remitted pursuant to the Prepaid Mobile Telephony Services Surcharge and Collection Act. (3) The Fee Collection Procedures Law makes a violation of any provision of the law, or of certain requirements imposed by the board pursuant to the law, a crime. By expanding the application of the Fee Collection Procedures Law, the violation of which is a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. (4) This bill would state that changes made by this bill to amend and add specified code sections are not intended to supersede changes made by Section 310 of the Governor's Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 2012, which took effect on July 3, 2012, and will become fully operative on July 1, 2013. (5) Provisions of this bill would become inoperative on January 1, 2017, and the Prepaid Mobile Telephony Services and Collection Act would be repealed on that date. The bill would further state the intent of the Legislature to develop and implement means to collect local utility user taxes and local communications related-charges on the purchase of prepaid mobile telephony services with the intent that the state MTS surcharge and those local charges would be in a uniform manner consistent with this bill collection procedures by that date. (6) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.