INCOME TAXES (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2015

Schedule of Components of Income Tax Expense (Benefit) [Table Text Block]

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

	Year Ended December 31,						Year Ended December 31,						Year Ended December 31,
			2015						2014						2013
	Federal		State and City		Total		Federal		State and City		Total		Federal		State and City			Total
Current	$	21,127	$	3,235	$	24,362	$	21,232	$	8,121	$	29,353	$	22,475	$	7,806		$	30,281
Deferred		2,269		4,614		6,883		540		231		771		362		(1,302	)		(940	)
TOTAL	$	23,396	$	7,849	$	31,245	$	21,772	$	8,352	$	30,124	$	22,837	$	6,504		$	29,341

Schedule of Effective Income Tax Rate Reconciliation [Table Text Block]

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

	Year Ended December 31,
	2015			2014			2013
Tax at Federal statutory rate	$	26,606		$	26,029		$	25,511
State and local taxes, net of federal income tax benefit		5,102			5,466			4,228
Benefit plan differences		(59	)		(156	)		(445	)
Adjustments for prior period returns and tax items		590			(164	)		422
Investment in BOLI		(842	)		(610	)		(585	)
Other, net		(152	)		(441	)		210
TOTAL	$	31,245		$	30,124		$	29,341
Effective tax rate		41.10	%		40.51	%		40.25	%

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, State and City deferred income tax assets and liabilities were as follows:

	At December 31,
Deferred tax assets:	2015		2014
Allowance for loan losses	$	8,303	$	8,261
Employee benefit plans		18,849		19,487
Credit component of OTTI		-		4,023
Tax effect of other components of income on investment securities and MBS		722		109
Other		1,768		1,515
Total deferred tax assets		29,642		33,395
Deferred tax liabilities:
Difference in book and tax carrying value of fixed assets		667		983
Difference in book and tax basis of unearned loan fees		2,761		-
Other		448		16
Total deferred tax liabilities		3,876		999
Net deferred tax asset (recorded in other assets)	$	25,766	$	32,396