US WEST's battle to free Yellow Pages revenue from regulatory control has moved to a new arena: the Utah Supreme Court.
The company has filed a petition for review with the top state court, asking it to look at that issue and several other decisions made by the Public Service Commission in the rate order it issued in December.Meanwhile, a bill that alters how Yellow Pages revenues are accounted for continues to be a moving target in the Legislature.
In its last form, the bill directed the Public Service Commission to figure out how much vested interest ratepayers have in the directories, credit them accordingly and then phase the revenue out of US WEST's bottom line.
Tuesday morning it appeared that Rep. Brent Haymond, R-Springville, was garnering support to reintroduce his original bill. He held a press conference with Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan, who chairs the legislative policy committee for the Utah League of Cities and Towns.
Dolan said 60 members of the league voted unanimously Monday to support Haymond's original substitute bill. Dolan said the league's legal opinion indicated that US West would prevail in a legal case over the Yellow Pages revenue issue and rates would end up being increased with no benefits to customers.
Haymond, who sponsored HB263, originally proposed a flat elimination of the Yellow Pages revenue subsidy within a year. He then tried to make the bill more palatable with amendments that phased the subsidy out over five years and created a $45 million legacy fund that US WEST could use to enhance services to schools and rural areas.
Rep. Marty Stephens, R-Farr West, is angry about the way Haymond is attempting to get the bill through the House.
"The only people they've talked to are the governor and the speaker," Stephens said. "They're not working with the rest of us interested in telecommunications issues."
Stephens is sponsoring another bill, HB115, that enacts stiffer penalties on companies that fail to work cooperatively to bring about local competition for telephone service.
Vicki Varela, deputy chief of staff for Gov. Mike Leavitt, said the governor's office has been "monitoring" progress of the telecommunications bills but has not taken a "solid" position on them.
"We'll weigh in as appropriate to make sure we get the best solution for consumers and telecommunications in the state," Varela said. "It's very important to the governor that we get it done right, that we get it resolved with the very best thinkers and all the issues understood."
As for the competition that was much heralded in 1995 and 1996 when state and federal laws were adopted deregulating the phone industry, Varela said "we clearly haven't arrived."
US WEST has used a two-pronged attack on the Yellow Pages issue - seeking redress legislatively and legally - in other states besides Utah. In Washington, the state's Supreme Court rejected the company's Yellow Pages arguments in December.
"The Supreme Court ruled that yellow page revenue was absolutely and clearly under state law required to be imputed in rates," said Judy Krebs, associate director of Washington Citizen Action and coordinator for US WEST Watch, a consumer group that coordinates information among states in the company's territory.