20240521TRS Press Release 0512.pdf

Idaho Public Utilities Commission Brad Litile,Governor
P.O. Banc 83720. Boise, ID 83720-0074 Eric Anderson, President
John R.Mammo* Jr,Commissioner
Edward Lodge,Commissioner
Case No. GNR-T-24-02
Order No. 36179
Contact:Adam Rush
Office: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
NEWS RELEASE: Commission accepts annual report,budget for telecommunications service
that provides speech to text, video and other services.
BOISE (May 21, 2024)—The Idaho Public Utilities Commission has accepted the 2023 annual
report and 2024 budget for the Idaho Telecommunications Relay Service, which allows those
with hearing or speech disabilities to place and receive telephone calls.
The Idaho Legislature established the Telecommunications Relay Service Act in 1992 in
accordance with Title VI of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. The service allows
hearing or speech-impaired individuals to engage in telephone communications "in a manner
functionally equivalent to that of individuals without hearing or speech impairments."The
service includes a relay center where verbal conversations are converted, or relayed, to text-type
and vice versa. The center also provides speech-to-speech, Spanish-to-Spanish, video, and
Internet relay services.
The service is funded by assessments on local telephone service (residential and business) access
lines and on billed intrastate long-distance minutes. The service is operated by Hamilton
Telecommunications, which is reimbursed for in-state relay traffic and captioned telephone
services.
The administrator for the service, Kathleen Toohill, reported that the center handled 1,221 calls
in 2023, an approximately 11 percent increase from 2022. The service's expenses for 2023
totaled $141,274. Disbursements to Hamilton were $101,065. The administrative fees and
expenses for 2023 were $40,080 and the end-of-year fund balance was $68,872.
Telephone companies reported a 3.0 percent decrease in total intrastate long-distance minutes,
from about 60,936,000 minutes in 2022 to about 59,148,700 minutes in 2023.Average monthly
telephone lines increased by approximately 1.0 percent, from 87,700 in 2022 to 88,344 in 2023.
The 2023 annual total contribution to the fund was $112,149, a decrease of$593 from 2022. In
2023, local exchange services contributed$53,006. Message telecommunication services and
wide area telephone service collectively contributed $59,149.

Previous orders issued by the commission increased the per-line rate from $0.03 to $0.05
effective May 1, 2021, and kept the rate at $0.05 per line and$0.001 per long-distance minute.
The annual operating budget for 2024 is projected at $141,232. This includes administrative fees
and expenses, travel and conference costs, the payments to Hamilton and annual membership
dues. Based on the proposed budget for 2024 and the 2023 end-of-year reserves, the
administrator for the service is presenting four options:
1. Continue the present compensation rates to the TRS fund at $0.05 per line and$0.001 per
long-distance line.
2. Continue with the current long distance per minute rate of$0.001 while raising the per line
rate to range somewhere around$0.07 per line to try and level out contributions to the fund. This
would allow the 2024 end-of-balance to come out to an estimated$45,000-$50,000.
3. The commission could raise both rates.
4. Staff noted the commission could"look at other creative means of funding beyond landlines
and MTS/WATS."
After reviewing the administrator's report and staff's recommendations, the commission found it
just and reasonable to adopt the second option. This allows the per minute rate, which appears to
be contributing to the fund in a sustainable manner, to remain unchanged while taking a
measured step toward sustainability by increasing the per line rate to $0.07.
Additional information is available at puc.idaho.gov/case/Details/7269 and at
cdhh.idaho.gov/resource-directory/trs/.