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1998 SESSION

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HB 957 Public rights-of-way; telecommunication facilities.

Introduced by: William P. Robinson, Jr. | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY:

Public rights-of-way; mileage-based fees; costs of relocating telecommunication facilities in public rights-of-way. Establishes the Public Rights-of-Way Use Fee (the "Fee"), to be used for the collection of fees from certificated providers of local exchange telecommunications service for the use of public rights-of-way. This fee will replace any and all fees of general application for use of public rights-of-way for localities whose public streets and roads are maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation. Localities that maintain their own roads may impose the fee by ordinance. Localities imposing the fee and the Commonwealth Transportation Board will collect, in an equal amount each month, an annual amount calculated by charging an established amount for (i) number of miles of public highway and (ii) number of feet of new installations installed in existing public rights-of-way. The fee is determined by dividing the sum of the total amount from highway mileage and new installations by the total number of access lines in participating localities. The amount is included, as a separate item, on each consumer's monthly local exchange billing statement in an amount of no less than 50 cents per access line. The certificated provider of local exchange service will remit the amount collected directly back to localities that maintain their own public streets and roads and that impose the fee by ordinance. In localities whose roads are maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), the fees shall be remitted to VDOT and then apportioned back to such localities on a population basis. Cities or towns electing not to impose the fee by ordinance may not impose on certificated providers of local exchange service restrictions on the use of the rights-of-way that (i) are unfair or unrecoverable or (ii) are any greater than those imposed on other nonpublic providers of public services. The bill also establishes a schedule for the reimbursement to telecommunications service providers for expenses related to the relocation of existing facilities when the expense is incurred at the direction of the locality or the Virginia Department of Transportation. The provisions of this bill are not applicable to Henrico County. This bill is identical to SB 577.


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