Indiana 2022 Regular Session Status: Enacted Bipartisan · 3 R · 1 D cosponsors

SB 273 — Financing of water and wastewater utility assets.

Last action — Signed by the Governor

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  1. ✓
    Introduced
  2. ✓
    In Committee
  3. ✓
    Passed Senate
  4. ✓
    Passed House
  5. ✓
    To Executive
  6. 6
    Enacted

This bill has been enacted into law. Introduced January 10, 2022. Enacted.

Prognosis

Likely to advance 74% · moderate confidence

Where this bill stands today.

Odds of enactment

High

How often bills like it became law.

  • Enacted

    Current position in the legislative process.

  • 4 sponsors

    3 primary, 1 co-sponsors signed on.

  • Bipartisan support

    Sponsored across 2 parties (3 R · 1 D) — cross-party backing.

Prognosis reads this bill's own signals — stage, sponsorship breadth, committee status, recorded votes and cross-state momentum. Odds come from a model trained on which bills have become law.

Summary

Provides that the IURC may approve periodic tracking mechanisms for water or wastewater utilities to permit such utilities to recover the following: (1) Changes in property taxes. (2) With respect to customers located within the geographic boundaries of local units of government, incremental costs of operation and maintenance resulting from policies or ordinances that are adopted by those local units and that the IURC determines to be unusual but not necessarily unreasonable. Requires the IURC to adopt rules to define what is unreasonable with respect to road cut permits and other specifications or policies established by a local unit that imposes costs on water or wastewater utilities. Amends the statute concerning wholesale water sales between small water utilities by increasing from 5,000 to 8,000 the threshold number of customers served by a water utility (as either a purchaser or supplier) for purposes of the statute. Amends the statute governing infrastructure improvement charges for water or wastewater utilities as follows: (1) Specifies that an "eligible infrastructure improvement" includes: (A) a project to relocate existing utility plant, including projects to accommodate the construction, reconstruction, or improvement of a highway, street, or road; and (B) a project that does not increase revenues by connecting to new customers, even if the project provides greater available capacity with respect to an eligible utility's distribution or collection plant. (2) Sets forth distinctions for public utilities, municipally owned utilities, and not-for-profit utilities with respect to: (A) costs that are eligible for recovery under the statute; (B) the factors the IURC may consider in determining the amount of allowable cost recovery; and (C) the resetting of the adjustment amount after a base rate case. (3) Specifies that the limitation restricting total adjustment revenues to 10% of an eligible utility's most recently approved base revenue level does not apply with respect to property taxes associated with eligible infrastructure improvements. Amends provisions in the Indiana Code chapter concerning a utility company's acquisition of an offered water or wastewater utility, by providing that the rates charged by the acquiring utility company are not considered to increase unreasonably as a result of the acquisition if the net original cost of the acquired assets does not exceed 2% of the acquiring utility company's net original cost rate base as determined in the acquiring utility's most recent general rate case, plus any adjustments to the rate base resulting from: (1) an infrastructure improvement charge; or (2) an adjustment rider for service enhancement improvement costs; that have occurred after the rate case. Makes a similar change to the Indiana Code section concerning the sale of a municipally owned utility's nonsurplus utility property.

Bill Text

We don't have the full text on file for this bill yet.

Read SB 273 on the official Indiana source →

Action History

  1. Signed by the Governor

  2. Public Law 61

  3. Signed by the President of the Senate

  4. Signed by the Speaker

  5. Returned to the Senate without amendments

  6. Signed by the President Pro Tempore

  7. Third reading: passed; Roll Call 289: yeas 93, nays 1

  8. Second reading: ordered engrossed

  9. Amendment #1 (Moed) motion withdrawn

  10. Committee report: do pass, adopted

  11. First reading: referred to Committee on Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications

  12. Referred to the House

  13. House sponsor: Representative Soliday

  14. Third reading: passed; Roll Call 119: yeas 48, nays 0

  15. Senator Charbonneau added as second author

  16. Second reading: ordered engrossed

  17. Senator Randolph added as coauthor

  18. Committee report: amend do pass, adopted

  19. First reading: referred to Committee on Utilities

  20. Authored by Senator Koch

Sponsors

Sponsorship breakdown

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3 sponsors · 1 co-sponsors · 146 not signed on

Sponsors (3)

Co-sponsors (1)

Not signed on (146)

146 members have not signed on to this bill.

Show all 146 →

"Not signed on" means a member has not sponsored or co-sponsored this bill — it does not imply opposition. Members flagged Voted No have a recorded No vote on this bill.

Whip count is in markup. Polling the chamber and every recorded vote this session. Only the first open is slow. It’s instant for you after this. Calling the roll · Tallying · Engrossing

Subjects

public-safety environment technology
Cross-referencing the record. Reading this bill against every other bill in the corpus by meaning, not keywords. Only the first open is slow. It’s instant for you after this. Matching · Ranking · Engrossing

Frequently asked questions

What does SB 273 do?
Provides that the IURC may approve periodic tracking mechanisms for water or wastewater utilities to permit such utilities to recover the following: (1) Changes in property taxes. (2) With respect to customers located within the geographic boundaries of local units of government, incremental costs of operation and maintenance resulting from policies or ordinances that are adopted by those local units and that the IURC determines to be unusual but not necessarily unreasonable. Requires the IURC to adopt rules to define what is unreasonable with respect to road cut permits and other specifications or policies established by a local unit that imposes costs on water or wastewater utilities. Amends the statute concerning wholesale water sales between small water utilities by increasing from 5,000 to 8,000 the threshold number of customers served by a water utility (as either a purchaser or supplier) for purposes of the statute. Amends the statute governing infrastructure improvement charges for water or wastewater utilities as follows: (1) Specifies that an "eligible infrastructure improvement" includes: (A) a project to relocate existing utility plant, including projects to accommodate the construction, reconstruction, or improvement of a highway, street, or road; and (B) a project that does not increase revenues by connecting to new customers, even if the project provides greater available capacity with respect to an eligible utility's distribution or collection plant. (2) Sets forth distinctions for public utilities, municipally owned utilities, and not-for-profit utilities with respect to: (A) costs that are eligible for recovery under the statute; (B) the factors the IURC may consider in determining the amount of allowable cost recovery; and (C) the resetting of the adjustment amount after a base rate case. (3) Specifies that the limitation restricting total adjustment revenues to 10% of an eligible utility's most recently approved base revenue level does not apply with respect to property taxes associated with eligible infrastructure improvements. Amends provisions in the Indiana Code chapter concerning a utility company's acquisition of an offered water or wastewater utility, by providing that the rates charged by the acquiring utility company are not considered to increase unreasonably as a result of the acquisition if the net original cost of the acquired assets does not exceed 2% of the acquiring utility company's net original cost rate base as determined in the acquiring utility's most recent general rate case, plus any adjustments to the rate base resulting from: (1) an infrastructure improvement charge; or (2) an adjustment rider for service enhancement improvement costs; that have occurred after the rate case. Makes a similar change to the Indiana Code section concerning the sale of a municipally owned utility's nonsurplus utility property.
Who sponsors SB 273?
SB 273 is sponsored by Eric Koch (Republican), Ed Charbonneau (Republican), Lonnie Randolph (Democrat), and Edmond Soliday (Republican).
What is the current status of SB 273?
This bill has been enacted into law. Introduced January 10, 2022. Enacted.
Where can I track SB 273?
Track SB 273 free on One Click Politics — get push/email alerts when it moves.

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