Public utilities and other service suppliers: collection of local taxes.

Under existing law, a public utility is required to bill its customers for various taxes imposed by a public entity and remit the revenues from those taxes that are collected to the public entity. The Public Utilities Act provides that a public utility or other service supplier is not liable to any customer as a result of collecting these taxes, and grants various rights to, and imposes various requirements on, public utilities and other service suppliers with respect to the imposition, repeal, or collection of the taxes. Existing law, the Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act of 2006, establishes a procedure for the issuance of state franchises for the provision of video service, defined to include cable service and open-video systems, administered by the Public Utilities Commission. This bill would explicitly define the term "other service supplier" for the purpose of those provisions to include, but not be limited to, a holder of a state franchise for the provision of video service.