Opinion ID: 1271937
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the decision to break out municipal franchise charges on customer billings

Text: The PUC has a general responsibility to protect the public interest regarding utility rates and practices. Public Utilities Commission v. District Court, 186 Colo. 278, 527 P.2d 233 (1974); Consolidated Freightways Co. v. Public Utilities Commission, 158 Colo. 239, 406 P.2d 83 (1965); see section 40-3-101(2), C.R.S. 1973. In fulfilling that function, in the area of utility regulation the PUC has broadly based authority to do whatever it deems necessary or convenient to accomplish the legislative functions delegated to it. Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. Public Utilities Commission, supra, 97 Colo. at 135, 576 P.2d at 547. (PUC has authority to assess reasonable attorneys' fees incurred by protestor or intervenor against utility in proceedings before it.) It cannot be seriously disputed that the PUC has authority to regulate the information which public utilities include in their customer billings. See 4 C.C.R. 723-3 at 3.01-9. In this case the decision to break out franchise charges on customer billings is based upon the value to utility customers of this information. The Commission specifically found that such practices had been beneficial in the past with respect to providing customers with pertinent information as to their respective proportionate shares of certain taxes [5] and determined that a similar benefit would flow from providing information about franchise charges. Judgments of this nature fall squarely within the discretion and expertise of the Commission. Moreover, the City's contention that it is arbitrary to require separate statement of franchise charges while not so treating other taxes proceeds from a flawed premise. The franchise charge at issue here is not a tax. It is a charge established by contract between the City and Rocky Mountain to enable Rocky Mountain to serve City customers and to place its gas lines on City property as necessary in the utility's operations. The fact that the franchise charge is based on a percentage of Rocky Mountain's revenues from customers within the City does not make it a tax. The judgment whether each utility customer should be advised of his share of a franchise charge even though similar information as to various taxes is not set forth on his billing is properly committed to the PUC and not to the courts. Except on a showing of a clear abuse of discretion we will not substitute our judgment for that of the PUC as to the propriety of such a billing practice. The City has made no such showing here. We can find no merit in the City's contention that the PUC's order requiring Rocky Mountain to break out municipal franchise charges adversely affects the City's ability to collect such charges from utilities under its constitutional franchise powers. See Colo. Const. Art. XX, § 4 and Art. XXV. The City's fears that public dissatisfaction with the franchise charges will result from informing Rocky Mountain's customers of their share of those charges, and that such dissatisfaction will pose a threat to the continued existence of the City's constitutional franchise powers, are speculative at best and provide no basis for overturning the PUC's decision. The City's equal protection argument is also without merit. The Commission's decision to break out municipal franchise charges while not separately listing arguably similar expenses on the customer billings neither confers a benefit nor imposes a hardship on any particular class of persons. See People v. Childs, Colo., 610 P.2d 101 (1980). [6] Its only effect is to provide information to all of Rocky Mountain's customers. The guarantees of equal protection of the laws in the Colorado and United States Constitutions simply are not implicated by the Commission's decision in this case. The decision of the district court is affirmed.