Amend the bill by inserting after the title and before the emergency preamble the following:
‘
Mandate preamble. This measure requires one or more local units of government to expand or modify activities so as to necessitate additional expenditures from local revenues but does not provide funding for at least 90% of those expenditures. Pursuant to the Constitution of Maine, Article IX, Section 21, 2/3 of all of the members elected to each House have determined it necessary to enact this measure.’
Amend the bill by striking out all of section 1 and inserting the following:
‘Sec. 1. 25 MRSA §1535 is enacted to read:
The Public Utilities Commission may, on its own motion or at the request of the department or a political subdivision of the State, establish in an adjudicatory proceeding the fees that must be paid by political subdivisions for public safety answering point services and dispatch services provided by the department to those political subdivisions, including services provided pursuant to section 2923-A. In the proceeding, the commission shall establish the revenue requirement for the department's relevant dispatch and public safety answering point services and a fee design for the recovery of the department's revenue requirement to ensure the fees reasonably reflect services provided. In any proceeding held under this section, the department and all political subdivisions that are to be provided public safety answering point services and dispatch services shall provide to the commission all information the commission determines necessary in order to establish the fees.’
Amend the bill by inserting after section 2 the following:
‘Sec. 3. Initial setting of fees. The Public Utilities Commission shall undertake an adjudicatory proceeding pursuant to the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 25, section 1535 to initially establish the fees that must be paid by political subdivisions of the State for public safety answering point services and dispatch services provided by the Department of Public Safety.’
summary
This amendment removes that portion of the bill that directs the Maine Communications System Policy Board within the Department of Public Safety to set by rule the fees the department charges municipalities for public safety answering point services provided by the department. Instead, the amendment directs the Public Utilities Commission to establish these fees in an adjudicatory proceeding.
The amendment also adds a mandate preamble to the bill.