Note 13 - Income Taxes

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2017

Notes to Financial Statements

Income Tax Disclosure [Text Block]

1 3 . Income Taxes

At the end of each interim period, we are required to estimate our annual effective tax rate for the fiscal year and use that rate to provide for income taxes for the current year-to-date reporting period. Our overall effective income tax rates were

38.8%

and

33.0%

for the

three

months ended

March

31,

2017

and

2016,

respectively, resulting in income tax expense of

$14.1

million and

$4.7

million for the same periods, respectively. The year-over-year increase in our effective tax rate was primarily the result of

(1)

our

2016

first

quarter estimate of our full year effective tax rate including an estimate for energy credits whereas our estimate for the

2017

full year includes no such estimate as the credit for

2017

has not been approved by the U.S. Congress and

(2)

establishment of a valuation allowance against certain state net operating loss carryforwards where realization is more uncertain at this time.

At

March

31,

2017

and

December

31,

2016

we had deferred tax assets, net of valuation allowances and deferred tax liabilities, of

$70.5

million and

$74.9

million, respectively. The valuation allowances were related to:

(1)

various state net operating loss carryforwards where realization is more uncertain at this time due to the limited carryforward periods that exist in certain states; and

(2)

the portion of the amount by which the carrying value of our Metro Bonds for tax purposes exceeds our carrying value for book purposes, as we believe realization of that portion is more uncertain at this time.