International Trade Today is a service of Warren Communications News.

The Ohio Public Utilities Commission can have lower budgets

The Ohio Public Utilities Commission can have lower budgets in the fiscal years 2014 and 2015 because it’s losing authority over the state’s Wireless Enhanced 9-1-1 funds, PUC Chairman Todd Snitchler told the Ohio Senate Tuesday. “The FY14 proposed budget…

Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article

If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.

of $71,646,302 million is a 23% decrease from the FY13 budget of $92,978,316 million, and the FY15 proposed budget of $53,254,528 is a 43% decrease of the FY13 budget,” Snitchler said in his written testimony (http://1.usa.gov/100xRGD). The fund, which comes from a 25-cents-per-month wireless surcharge, was created in 2005, he said. Fiscal year 2015 shows an $18.4 million drop in the proposed PUC budget, he said. He noted that two state laws are transferring the supervision of the funds from the PUC to the Ohio departments of taxation and public safety. The PUC will stop administering these funds as of Jan. 1, 2014, where upon “Taxation will be in charge of the collection and distribution of funds at that time, currently an assigned responsibility of a Commission staff member,” he said.