Employee Benefit Plans

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2012

Defined Benefit Pension Plans and Defined Benefit Postretirement Plans Disclosure [Abstract]

Employee Benefit Plans

EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS

The components of net pension expense for the Company’s two defined benefit non-contributory pension plans and certain nonqualified supplemental pension plans were:

	Three months ended June 30,						Six months ended June 30,
(in thousands)	2012			2011			2012			2011
Components of net periodic benefit cost:
Service cost	$	2,632		$	2,293		$	5,264		$	4,586
Interest cost	2,700			2,740			5,400			5,480
Expected long-term return on assets	(3,563		)	(3,868		)	(7,126		)	(7,736		)
Actuarial loss	2,099			1,609			4,198			3,218
Prior service cost amortization	129			124			259			248
Net periodic expense	$	3,997		$	2,898		$	7,995		$	5,796

The Companyanticipates required contributions of approximately $12.8 million during 2012 to the qualified pension plans. The Company expects sufficient funding credits, as established under Internal Revenue Code Section 430(f), exist to meet the required funding. It is not anticipated that the funded status of the qualified pension plans will fall below statutory thresholds requiring accelerated funding or constraints on benefit levels or plan administration. No additional discretionary contributions are currently expected to be made to the pension plans by the Company during 2012. For the three months and six months ending June 30, 2012, the Company made benefit payments aggregating $36,000 and $2.3 million, respectively, to retirees from the nonqualified supplemental retirement plans and expects to make additional benefit payments of approximately $0.1 million through the remainder of 2012.

During the second quarter of 2012, Congress passed the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, which included pension funding stabilization provisions. The measure, which is designed to stabilize the discount rate used to determine funding requirements from the effects of interest rate volatility, is not expected to reduce the Company's pension plan cash contributions materially during 2012.

The components of net periodic postretirement benefit expense for the Company’s postretirement benefit plans were:

	Three months ended June 30,						Six months ended June 30,
(in thousands)	2012			2011			2012			2011
Components of net periodic benefit cost:
Service cost	$	463		$	442		$	927		$	885
Interest cost	1,062			1,111			2,124			2,222
Expected long-term return on assets	(1,109		)	(1,104		)	(2,219		)	(2,209		)
Actuarial loss	9			—			18			—
Transition amortization	479			479			959			958
Net periodic expense	$	904		$	928		$	1,809		$	1,856

For the three months and six months ended June 30, 2012, the Company made contributions aggregating $0.9 million and $1.8 million, respectively, to the postretirement benefit plans. The Company expects to make additional discretionary contributions of approximately $1.8 million to the postretirement benefit plans through the remainder of 2012.