Income Taxes (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2015

The provisions for income taxes consist of the following:



	2015			2014			2013
Current expense:
Federal	$	34,990		$	38,786		$	21,807
State	15,138			11,449			11,824
Total current expense	50,128			50,235			33,631
Deferred expense (benefit):
Federal	28,877			29,208			33,349
State	815			4,717			2,274
Investment tax credit amortization	(336		)	(337		)	(342		)
Total income tax expense	$	79,484		$	83,823		$	68,912

A reconciliation from the U.S. federal statutory tax rate to our effective tax rate is as follows:



	2015		2014		2013
U.S. federal statutory tax rate	35.0	%	35.0	%	35.0	%
Difference in tax rate due to:
State income taxes, net of federal	5.1		5.1		5.4
Other, net	(0.5	)	0.2		(0.1	)
Effective tax rate	39.6	%	40.3	%	40.3	%

Deferred tax liabilities (assets) comprise the following at September 30:



	2015			2014
Excess book basis over tax basis of property, plant and equipment	$	431,480		$	392,839
Goodwill	40,552			36,034
Regulatory assets	117,420			109,953
Other	2,573			1,349
Gross deferred tax liabilities	592,025			540,175
Pension plan liabilities	(54,444		)	(40,461		)
Allowance for doubtful accounts	(2,809		)	(2,903		)
Deferred investment tax credits	(1,493		)	(1,632		)
Employee-related expenses	(5,637		)	(5,630		)
Regulatory liabilities	(23,958		)	(14,836		)
Environmental liabilities	(6,014		)	(4,389		)
Derivative financial instruments	(3,501		)	(6,224		)
Other	(6,367		)	(4,131		)
Gross deferred tax assets	(104,223		)	(80,206		)
Net deferred tax liabilities	$	487,802		$	459,969

A reconciliation of the beginning and ending amounts of unrecognized tax benefits is as follows:



	2014			2013
Unrecognized tax benefits - beginning of year	$	1,087		$	1,048
Additions for tax positions of prior years	—			39
Settlements with tax authorities	(1,087		)	—
Unrecognized tax benefits - end of year	$	—		$	1,087