Public benefit fee draws fire, but it's a state mandate

In an effort to bill themselves as anti-tax, City Council candidates are coming out against the public benefits fee that appears on all electric bills of customers of the city's Public Utilities Department. But by making a big issue out of a little fee, candidates are ignoring an important detail: the fee is part of the state law that restructured the electric industry. Far from being a tax imposed by the City Council, the fee is mandatory. Article eight under Assembly Bill 1890 requires that "each local publicly owned electric utility shall establish a non by passable, usage-based charge on local distribution service," according to section 385 of the California Public Utilities Code. The fee is 2.8S percent of a user's bill. In Anaheim, 60 percent of the money is used on energy efficiency programs, 18 percent pays for assistance lowincome customers, 1 percent funds renewable energy and 21 percent funds research of electric-related technologies. "The fee is absolutely mandatory," said Lon Topaz, intergrated resources manager for the city. "If the city utility did not collect the fee, it would be in violation of state law." While no penalty for not following the law is listed in the code, the city would be vulnerable to lawsuits from the state's energy commission or from competing utilities. The city would then have to incur the cost of lengthy court proceedings at the end of which it would be forced to comply with the law. Topaz worked on the drafting of the provision in Sacramento.