Income Taxes (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

The provisions for income taxes consist of the following:



	2016			2015			2014
Current expense (benefit):
Federal	$	(17,845	)	$	34,990		$	38,786
State	6,805			15,138			11,449
Total current (benefit) expense	(11,040		)	50,128			50,235
Deferred expense (benefit):
Federal	71,005			28,877			29,208
State	6,262			815			4,717
Investment tax credit amortization	(329		)	(336		)	(337		)
Total income tax expense	$	65,898		$	79,484		$	83,823

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



	2016		2015		2014
U.S. federal statutory tax rate	35.0	%	35.0	%	35.0	%
Difference in tax rate due to:
State income taxes, net of federal	5.2		5.1		5.1
Other, net	0.2		(0.5	)	0.2
Effective tax rate	40.4	%	39.6	%	40.3	%

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



	2016			2015
Excess book basis over tax basis of property, plant and equipment	$	491,038		$	431,480
Goodwill	45,070			40,552
Derivative financial instruments	948			—
Regulatory assets	149,660			117,420
Other	2,910			2,573
Gross deferred tax liabilities	689,626			592,025
Pension plan liabilities	(74,129		)	(54,444		)
Allowance for doubtful accounts	(1,637		)	(2,809		)
Deferred investment tax credits	(1,356		)	(1,493		)
Employee-related expenses	(5,247		)	(5,637		)
Regulatory liabilities	(16,798		)	(23,958		)
Environmental liabilities	(22,757		)	(6,014		)
Derivative financial instruments	—			(3,501		)
Other	(17,473		)	(6,367		)
Gross deferred tax assets	(139,397		)	(104,223		)
Net deferred tax liabilities	$	550,229		$	487,802

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



	2016		2015		2014
Unrecognized tax benefits - beginning of year	$	—	$	—	$	1,087
Additions for tax positions of prior years	2,055		—		—
Additions for tax positions of the current year
Settlements with tax authorities	—		—		(1,087		)
Unrecognized tax benefits - end of year	$	2,055	$	—	$	—