HB0359_S_Cmte_Amend

SECTION 1. (1) For purposes of this act, the term "utility" shall mean any utility created or operated pursuant to Section 21-27-11 et seq., Mississippi Code of 1972, or any entity created by or authorized by other legislation of the State of Mississippi providing water, sewer, electricity, gas, transportation or other utility services whose rates are not subject to regulation by the Mississippi Public Service Commission.

(2) For purposes of this act, "low-income customer" shall mean any customer of a utility whose household income equals or is less than two hundred percent (200%) of the Federal Poverty Guidelines for a household the size of the customer's. A utility may deem a customer to have income less than two hundred percent (200%) of the Federal Poverty Guidelines without further income verification if a member of the customer's household receives benefits through the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP).

(3) Any utility may institute a program to address certain disputed or delinquent customer accounts. The utility must adopt rules and procedures to implement the program if instituted. The utility's authority to compromise doubtful claims is limited to the following cases:

(a) (i) Instances of error on the part of the utility such as equipment failure or process failure, but only to the extent the customer did not receive the benefit of the utility service;

(ii) Instances of error not on the part of the customer due to unforeseen circumstance such as damage, extreme weather-related event, declared disaster or emergency, or mandatory evacuation, but only to the extent the customer did not receive the benefit of the utility service; and

(b) Instances where a low-income customer's overdue balance for a utility service can be reasonably adjudged to be uncollectable, in which case the utility may use an installment payment agreement to allow the customer additional time to pay a prescribed portion of the outstanding balance, and as part of the installment payment plan, to offer the use by the utility of accounting procedures to move the remaining balance as an uncollectable debt to a special accounting category of uncollectable or inactive accounts as outlined in the program rules if the customer fulfills all terms of the installment plan. The program must provide that the accounting adjustments under this paragraph (b) do not result in forgiveness of uncollectable debts.

(4) The utility may set program parameters to take into account the principle of collateral estoppel as to its own prior service, billing or collection actions.

(5) Any utility that participates in the program shall provide to the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Mississippi Public Utilities Staff a biannual report that details the utility's revenue collection, the number of accounts that have been adjudged uncollectable, the number of accounts that are participating in the installment payment plans, the number of accounts that are overdue, the percentage of customers who are classified as low-income, and the effect of the program on the utility's revenue collection.

(6) This section shall stand repealed on July 1, 2024.

SECTION 2. Section 31-19-27, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

31-19-27. A doubtful claim of the state, or of the county, city, town, village, or levee board is one for which judgment has been rendered and for the collection of which the ordinary process of law has been ineffectual; debts due by drainage districts or other taxing districts or sinking funds to counties under the Rehabilitation Act of 1928, being Chapter 88 * * * ~~of the~~, Laws of 1928, and Chapter 16 of the Acts of the Special Session of 1931; those debts due counties by drainage districts, which the Reconstruction Finance Corporation has heretofore refused to refinance; those debts due a municipal utility system as authorized under Section 1 of this act; debts due for sixteenth section township school fund loans made to churches, where the board of supervisors finds that the value of the security given therefor is insufficient or inadequate to pay or satisfy the principal and interest of said loan, and when the church repays the principal of said loan; and debts due by counties and townships to drainage districts for drainage district assessments or taxes levied and assessed upon sixteenth section lands.

SECTION 3. Section 31-19-29, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

31-19-29. The Governor, on the advice of the Attorney General or * * * ~~Chairman of the State Tax Commission~~ the Commissioner of Revenue, may, upon application of the defendant or debtor proposing a compromise, settle and compromise any doubtful claim of the state, or of any county, city, town, or village, or of any levee board against such defendant or debtor, upon such terms as he may deem proper, the board of supervisors in the case of a county, and the municipal authorities in the case of a city, town or village, and the levee board in the case of a claim of a levee board, concurring therein. The Governor, upon application of a drainage district having obligations outstanding to a county under the provisions of Chapter 88, Laws of 1928, and Chapter 16, Laws of the Extraordinary Session of 1931, or obligations which the Reconstruction Finance Corporation has heretofore refused to refinance, may settle and compromise any claim, debt or obligation that said drainage district may owe any county in the State of Mississippi for money loaned said district under the provisions of said Chapter 88, Laws of 1928, or any other claim, debt or obligation that said drainage district may owe the county which the Reconstruction Finance Corporation has heretofore refused to finance, if the board of supervisors of said county concurs in the application of the drainage district. A utility may compromise a debt owed for water and sewer service only as provided in Section 1 of this act. The Governor, upon application by the board of supervisors for any taxing districts of said county or sinking funds of said county under the control and supervision of said board of supervisors having obligations outstanding and due to said county under the provisions of Chapter 88, Laws of 1928, and Chapter 16, Laws of the Extraordinary Session of 1931, may settle and compromise any claim, debt, or obligation that said taxing districts or sinking funds may owe said county for money loaned said taxing districts or sinking funds under the provisions of said Chapter 88, Laws of 1928; and provided that the Governor, on the advice of the Attorney General, and upon application of a church owing a sixteenth section township school fund loan, may settle and compromise such debt or obligation if the board of supervisors of the said county concurs in the application of the said church. The Governor may, on the advice of the Attorney General, in like manner compromise and settle a claim of a drainage district for unpaid assessments or taxes upon sixteenth section lands upon application of the board of supervisors wherein such sixteenth section is situated, if the commissioners of the drainage district concur therein.

SECTION 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2021, and shall stand repealed on June 30, 2021.