209.255. Rate established to recover costs of programs--surcharge, limitations, collection--exemption from taxes.
Rate established to recover costs of programs--surcharge, limitations,collection--exemption from taxes.
209.255. 1. The commission shall establish a rate recovery mechanismto recover the costs of implementing and maintaining the programs providedfor in section 209.253, which shall be applied to each basic telephoneaccess line. Any surcharge established by such rate recovery mechanismshall not be imposed upon more than one hundred basic telephone accesslines per subscriber per location. Any surcharge established by such raterecovery mechanism shall not be imposed on any telephone line used toprovide pay telephone service. The surcharge may appear on the bill ofeach local exchange telephone subscriber identified separately as a deafrelay service and equipment distribution program fund surcharge. Thecommission shall not vary the amount of the surcharge between telephonecompanies nor between the class or grade of customers of any telephonecompany. The surcharge provided for in this section shall be exempt fromthe taxes provided for in chapter 144, RSMo, and the surcharge shall not beconstrued as gross receipts or revenue of the company collecting such forthe purpose of local taxation.
2. Each basic telephone access line subscriber is liable for thepayment of any surcharge provided for in subsection 1 of this section. Thelocal exchange telephone company shall not be liable for any uncollectedsurcharge, nor shall it have any obligation to initiate any action toenforce the collection of the surcharge.
(L. 1990 H.B. 1132 § 3 subsecs. 1, 2 merged with H.B. 1315 § 3 subsecs. 1, 2, A.L. 1993 S.B. 160, A.L. 1996 S.B. 525, A.L. 2000 S.B. 721)