Opinion ID: 1433961
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: RURAL LECs

Text: Under the Kansas Act, the legislature gave the KCC the authority to require reductions in the access rates which LECs charge to long distance and wireless carriers. K.S.A. 1996 Supp. 66-2005(c). The KCC exercised this authority and mandated a reduction in all access rates on March 1, 1997, as set out in the statute. Under the Kansas Act, the legislature intended for the LECs to recoup a part of their lost revenue, due to reduced access rates, from the KUSF. K.S.A. 1996 Supp. 66-2005(c). On appeal to the Court of Appeals, several parties challenged the KCC orders and specifically challenged the funding of KUSF, but the parties did not specifically challenge the required access rate reduction. The Court of Appeals set aside the KCC orders relating to the KUSF funding and remanded the matter to the KCC for further proceedings. However, the required access rate reductions were still in effect after the appeal. Thus, the rural LECs may have lost revenue, due to the required access rate reductions, but they were no longer allowed to recoup this lost revenue from a KUSF distribution, since the orders authorizing the KUSF had been set aside by the Court of Appeals. On appeal to this court, some of the rural LECs challenge the Court of Appeals' decision to set aside the KCC orders regarding the KUSF, in light of the required access rate reductions. The rural LECs ask this court to reverse the Court of Appeals and reinstate the KCC orders regarding the KUSF so that they may recoup revenue from the KUSF, which they lost due to the required access rates reductions. In this opinion, we are reversing the Court of Appeals and reinstating the KCC orders in regard to the KUSF. We cannot tell from the record whether any of the parties actually reduced their access rates and lost revenues while this case was pending in the Court of Appeals and in our court. However, if they did, it is the KCC's responsibility to ensure that all parties are placed in the same financial position that they would have been in had the KCC orders regarding the KUSF never been struck down by the Court of Appeals.