Sec. 1. 35-A MRSA §1510-A, as enacted by PL 2003, c. 505, §26, is amended to read:

§1510-A. Disposition of administrative penalty

Administrative penalties collected by the commission must be deposited in the Public Utilities Commission Reimbursement Fund under section 117. When the commission imposes on a public utility penalties totaling more than $100,000 in a 12-month period, the commission may, after allocating whatever amount is appropriate to the Public Utilities Commission Reimbursement Fund to offset its costs of investigating the utility's misconduct, require the utility to apply the remainder, along with any accrued interest, as a credit on the bills of the utility's customers.__In the month that the credit takes effect, customer bills must include language identifying the credit on the bill as "PUC-ordered administrative penalty: customer credit."

SUMMARY

Currently, all administrative penalties imposed and collected by the Public Utilities Commission are deposited in the Public Utilities Commission Reimbursement Fund, where they are used to defray unbudgeted and incidental commission expenses. Any excess is forwarded to the General Fund. This bill would permit the Public Utilities Commission to credit the bills of affected customers with amounts received as fines, net of expenses, from penalties in excess of $100,000.