Calif. Senate Appropriators Weigh USF Extension
California's Senate Appropriations Committee placed a state USF bill in its “suspense file," a category reserved for bills deemed to be costly and that will be taken up later. Nobody testified on the bill at a livestreamed hearing Monday. SB-857…
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would extend California High-Cost Fund A and B programs, set to expire Jan. 1, until Jan. 1, 2028. CHCF-A is for small independent telcos; CHCF-B is for telcos serving areas where cost exceeds rates charged by providers. The bill would extend CPUC authority to collect surcharges, but it doesn't "necessarily mean that surcharges will be collected for both funds,” said a March 31 fiscal note on SB-857. The CPUC hasn't collected the CHCF-B surcharge since December 2013 due to a surplus that’s now about $22 million, it said. "In recent budget years, the state has borrowed funds from the” B surplus to fund other USF programs. As those funds are repaid, the surplus could grow to $106 million, it said.