Note H - Employee Benefit Plans

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2022

Notes to Financial Statements

Retirement Benefits [Text Block]

Note H — Employee Benefit Plans

Prior to January 1, 1999, we provided a defined benefit pension plan for which most of our employees were eligible to participate (the “Qualified Pension Plan”).  In conjunction with significant enhancements to our 401(k) plan, we elected to freeze benefits under the Qualified Pension Plan as of December 31, 1998.

In 1994, we adopted a non-qualified, unfunded, supplemental pension plan (the “Restoration Pension Plan”) covering certain employees, which provides for incremental pension payments so that total pension payments equal those amounts that would have been payable from the principal pension plan were it not for limitations imposed by income tax regulation. The benefits under the Restoration Pension Plan were intended to provide benefits equivalent to our Qualified Pension Plan as if such plan had not been frozen. We elected to freeze benefits under the Restoration Pension Plan as of April 1, 2014.

At the end of 2020, the Board of Directors of the Company approved the division of the Qualified Pension Plan into two distinct plans, “Qualified Pension Plan I” and “Qualified Pension Plan II.”  The assets and liabilities of the Qualified Pension Plan that were attributable to certain participants in Qualified Pension Plan II were spun off and transferred into Qualified Pension Plan II effective as of the end of December 31, 2020, in accordance with Internal Revenue Code section 414 (I) and ERISA Section 4044.

Net pension cost for both plans included the following components:

	Three Months Ended June 30,						Six Months Ended June 30,
In thousands	2022			2021			2022			2021
Interest cost	$	1,260		$	1,168		$	2,520		$	2,336
Expected return on plan assets		(1,468	)		(1,688	)		(2,936	)		(3,376	)
Recognized actuarial loss		719			860			1,438			1,720
Net periodic benefit cost	$	511		$	340		$	1,022		$	680

Based on current estimates, we will be required to make a $1.3 million contribution to the combined qualified Pension Plan in 2022.  We made $0.5 million of such $1.3 million aggregate contribution in the six months ended June 30, 2022.

We are not required to make, and do not intend to make, any contributions to our Restoration Pension Plan other than to the extent needed to cover benefit payments. We made benefit payments under this supplemental plan of $0.9 million and $0.9 million in the six months ended June 30, 2022 and 2021, respectively.