INCOME TAXES (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2013

Consolidated Federal, State and City Income Tax Provisions

The Company's consolidated Federal, State and City income tax provisions were comprised of the following:

	Year Ended December 31, 2013											Year Ended December 31, 2012											Year Ended December 31, 2011
	Federal			State and City				Total				Federal				State and City			Total				Federal				State and City				Total
Current		$	22,475		$	7,806			$	30,281			$	21,607		$	7,351			$	28,958			$	25,580			$	7,231			$	32,811
Deferred			362			(1,302	)			(940	)			(1,395	)		(673	)			(2,068	)			(1,145	)			(78	)			(1,223	)
TOTAL		$	22,837		$	6,504			$	29,341			$	20,212		$	6,678			$	26,890			$	24,435			$	7,153			$	31,588

Effective Income Tax Rate Reconciliation

The provision for income taxes differed from that computed at the Federal statutory rate as follows:

	Year Ended December 31,
	2013			2012			2011
Tax at Federal statutory rate	$	25,511		$	23,519		$	27,614
State and local taxes, net of federal income tax benefit		4,228			4,341			4,319
Benefit plan differences		(445	)		(114	)		(122	)
Adjustments for prior period returns and tax items		422			63			185
Investment in BOLI		(585	)		(591	)		(615	)
Adjustment for unrecognized tax (benefits) liabilities		-			-			(1,026	)
Other, net		210			(328	)		1,233
TOTAL	$	29,341		$	26,890		$	31,588
Effective tax rate		40.25	%		40.02	%		40.04	%

Components of Federal and State and City Deferred Income Tax Assets and Liabilities

Deferred tax assets and liabilities are recorded for temporary differences between the book and tax bases of assets and liabilities. The components of Federal and State and City deferred income tax assets and liabilities were as follows:

	At December 31,
Deferred tax assets:	2013		2012
Allowance for loan losses	$	9,518	$	9,902
Employee benefit plans		15,478		17,681
Credit component of OTTI		4,088		4,052
Other		2,435		1,970
Total deferred tax assets		31,519		33,605
Deferred tax liabilities:
Tax effect of other components of income on investment securities and MBS		559		86
Difference in book and tax carrying value of fixed assets		986		337
Tax effect of purchase accounting fair value adjustments		-		-
Other		109		232
Total deferred tax liabilities		1,654		655
Net deferred tax asset (recorded in other assets)	$	29,865	$	32,950

Reconciliation of Gross Unrecognized Tax Benefits

	Year Ended December 31, 2011
Gross unrecognized tax benefits at the beginning of the period	$	1,408
Lapse of statue of limitations		-
Settlement with taxing jurisdictions		-
Gross increases – current period tax positions		-
Gross decreases – current period tax positions		-
Gross increases – prior period tax positions		-
Gross decreases – prior period tax positions		(1,408	)
Gross unrecognized tax benefits at the end of the period	$	-