SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2015

Schedule of activities in the allowance for doubtful accounts

The activities in the allowance for doubtful accounts are as follows:



	2015			2014
Beginning Balance	$	697		$	668
Provision for uncollectible accounts	1,674			1,561
Net write off of uncollectible accounts	(1,641		)	(1,532		)
Ending Balance	$	730		$	697

Schedule of depreciable plant and equipment

The following table represents depreciable plant and equipment as of December 31:



	2015		2014
Equipment	$	499,502	$	487,845
Office buildings and other structures	198,798		194,905
Transmission and distribution plant	1,603,541		1,508,444
Total	$	2,301,841	$	2,191,194

Schedule of estimated useful lives of depreciable plant and equipment

Depreciation of utility plant for financial statement purposes is computed on a straight-line basis over the assets' estimated useful lives including cost of removal of certain assets as follows:



	Useful Lives
Equipment	5 to 50 years
Transmission and distribution plant	40 to 65 years
Office Buildings and other structures	50 years

Schedule of regulatory assets and liabilities

Regulatory assets and liabilities were comprised of the following as of December 31:



	2015		2014
Regulatory Assets
Pension and retiree group health	$	205,614	$	245,008
Property-related temporary differences (tax benefits flowed through to customers)	81,522		72,350
Other accrued benefits	27,327		32,959
Interim rates long-term accounts receivable	5,238		10,627
Net WRAM and MCBA long-term accounts receivable	15,410		14,449
Asset retirement obligations, net	14,682		13,863
Tank coating	6,829		—
Health care balancing account	3,503		1,075
Other regulatory assets	1,768		—
Total Regulatory Assets	$	361,893	$	390,331
Regulatory Liabilities
Future tax benefits due customers	$	29,505	$	26,114
Conservation program	2,317		2,669
Pension balancing account	792		4,291
Other liabilities	2,650		3,373
Total Regulatory Liabilities	$	35,264	$	36,447

Schedule of SARs which were dilutive

All SARs were dilutive in 2015, 2014 and 2013. The dilutive effect is shown in the table below:



	2015		2014		2013
	(In thousands, except per share data)
Net income as reported and available to common stockholders	$	45,017	$	56,738	$	47,254
Weighted average common shares, basic	47,865		47,791		46,384
Dilutive common stock equivalents (treasury method)	15		38		33
Shares used for dilutive calculation	47,880		47,829		46,417
Earnings per share—basic	$	0.94	$	1.19	$	1.02
Earnings per share—diluted	$	0.94	$	1.19	$	1.02