LePage vetoes bill to up scrutiny of FairPoint fee hike
Gov. Paul LePage has vetoed a bill that would have sought greater scrutiny of a proposed $67 million fee hike by FairPoint Communications for cable, cell phone and land line ratepayers.
The Bangor Daily News reported that FairPoint’s rate increase, as proposed to the Maine Public Utilities Commission, would help the company fulfill the state’s “provider of last resort” requirement by offering service to far-off, rural customers. The state requirement calls for telephone companies to provide basic services for everyone in their basic service area.
The proposed rate increase, estimated to cost the average cell phone user about $5 more per month, would apply to all cable, cell phone and land line users, whether or not they are FairPoint customers. That’s because FairPoint is seeking the fee hike by way of a fund request from the state’s Universal Service Fund, which has traditionally been used to help fund smaller companies that need to fulfill the “provider of last resort” requirement.
The Universal Service Fund collects around $8.3 million a year from Maine residents, meaning that if FairPoint’s proposed fee hike is granted by the PUC, ratepayers would need to pay more to make up for the extra $67 million requested by the telecommunications firm.
The bill, “An Act To Clarify Telecommunications Regulation Reform,” would have given the Legislature the final OK over any fee hikes granted by the PUC. It would have also required the PUC to provide a report next year on how to shrink universal service costs for Maine residents.
LePage said the bill, which had passed with bipartisan majorities in the Legislation, wouldn’t do anything to address the “provider of last resort” system, which he called antiquated.
“Either we need to fund this policy or it needs to be eliminated,” he said. “Simply retaining the mandate without a method for paying for it is bad public policy.”
Rep. Barry Hobbins, D-Saco, the bill’s sponsor, said if the veto isn’t overridden, Maine residents “could be forced to pay a huge tax that will go straight into the pockets of Wall Street venture capitalists, who hold shares in [FairPoint].”
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