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Pension and Postretirement Plans
 9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2014
General Discussion of Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits [Abstract]  
Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure [Text Block]
Pension and Postretirement Plans
The Company sponsors three noncontributory defined benefit plans and a postretirement health and life insurance plan. For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013, approximately 10% of the costs were capitalized as a component of property, plant and equipment related to construction of our wireline network. Effective July 1, 2013, the management pension plan was amended to eliminate all future pension service credits. As a result, we recognized a curtailment gain of $0.6 million in the three months ended June 30, 2013 and remeasured the associated pension obligation. This remeasurement resulted in a reduction of our pension liability of $10.3 million. During the third quarter of 2013 the Board approved several amendments to the postretirement plan that required remeasurement of the associated benefit obligation. As a result, the Company recorded a $26.1 million reduction of the postretirement liability in the third quarter of 2013.
As of December 31, 2013, $30.8 million of the pension plan assets were invested in real estate pooled funds, representing 8% of total pension plan assets. During the third quarter of 2014, the Company put in redemption requests to liquidate the real estate pooled funds within the pension plan master trust. The real estate pooled funds are categorized as Level 3 investments. The proceeds from the sale will be reinvested in equity securities and investment grade fixed income securities similar to those currently held by the pension plan master trust. These new investments will be classified as Level 1 investments. Subsequent to September 30, 2014, the Company amended our target allocation policy to reflect this change in investment strategy and plan to only invest in equity securities and investment grade fixed income securities in the future.
For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013, pension and postretirement benefit costs were as follows:
 
Three Months Ended September 30,
 
2014
 
2013
 
2014
 
2013
(dollars in millions)
Pension Benefits
 
Postretirement and
Other Benefits
Service cost
$
0.3

 
$
0.3

 
$
0.1

 
$
0.1

Interest cost on projected benefit obligation
5.2

 
4.7

 
1.0

 
1.0

Expected return on plan assets
(7.0
)
 
(6.3
)
 
—

 
—

Amortization of:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Prior service cost (benefit)
0.1

 
0.1

 
(3.9
)
 
(3.7
)
Actuarial loss
4.3

 
5.4

 
1.4

 
1.4

       Total amortization
4.4

 
5.5

 
(2.5
)
 
(2.3
)
Benefit costs
$
2.9

 
$
4.2

 
$
(1.4
)
 
$
(1.2
)


 
Nine Months Ended September 30,
 
2014
 
2013
 
2014
 
2013
(dollars in millions)
Pension Benefits
 
Postretirement and
Other Benefits
Service cost
$
0.8

 
$
1.7

 
$
0.2

 
$
0.3

Interest cost on projected benefit obligation
15.7

 
14.1

 
3.0

 
3.0

Expected return on plan assets
(21.1
)
 
(19.2
)
 
—

 
—

Curtailment gain
—

 
(0.6
)
 
—

 
—

Amortization of:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Prior service cost (benefit)
0.2

 
0.2

 
(11.6
)
 
(10.2
)
Actuarial loss
13.0

 
16.4

 
4.1

 
4.3

       Total amortization
13.2

 
16.6

 
(7.5
)
 
(5.9
)
Benefit costs
$
8.6

 
$
12.6

 
$
(4.3
)
 
$
(2.6
)


Amortizations of prior service cost (benefit), actuarial loss, and curtailment gain represent reclassifications from accumulated other comprehensive income.

Contributions in 2014 to the Company’s pension and postretirement plans are expected to be approximately $21 million and $13 million, respectively. The reduction to planned pension contributions as compared to our second quarter estimate of $32 million is the result of new legislation which lowered the required minimum contributions for 2014. For the nine months ended September 30, 2014, contributions to the pension plans were $19.3 million and contributions to the postretirement plan were $9.3 million.