Rates and charges for water service: payment transaction fees.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical, gas, and water corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility, and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. Existing law authorizes an electrical, gas, or water corporation to offer credit card and debit card bill payment options, if approved by the commission, and, upon approval, authorizes an electrical, gas, or water corporation to recover, through an individual customer transaction fee, reasonable transaction costs incurred by the electrical, gas, or water corporation from those customers that choose those methods of payment. Existing law includes statements of legislative intent relative to electrical, gas, and water corporations offering customers the option to pay by credit card or debit card. This bill would, until January 1, 2022, authorize a water corporation with more than 10,000 service connections to seek commission approval, through its general rate case application, to operate a pilot program designed to evaluate customer interest in, and utilization of, bill payment options, including, but not limited to, credit card, debit card, and prepaid card bill payment options, and to assess the cost-effectiveness of, and customer interests served by, customer access to those bill payment options. The bill would limit the duration of a pilot program to the duration of the water corporation's rate case cycle. The bill would require the commission to allow a water corporation to recover the reasonable expenses incurred by the water corporation in providing its customers with these bill payment options, and to allow water corporations to not impose a transaction fee on its customers for using these bill payment options. The bill would prohibit the costs of a pilot program from being collected from low-income customers who participate in specified programs, and would require a water corporation that is operating a pilot program to provide certain notifications to its customers. The bill would require the commission, in consultation with the Low-Income Oversight Board, by July 1, 2020, to submit a report to specified legislative committees that, based on specified assessments, evaluates the usefulness of an individual customer transaction fee and includes a recommendation regarding individual customer transaction fees for credit card, debit card, and prepaid card bill payments accepted by water corporations.