Income Taxes (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Income Taxes [Abstract]

Domestic and foreign components of income before provision for income taxes and minority interest

The domestic and foreign components of income before provision for income taxes were as follows (in thousands):

	Year Ended December 31,
	2011		2010			2009
Domestic	$	215,437	$	202,522		$	178,610
Foreign	65		(71		)	(102		)
	$	215,502	$	202,451		$	178,508

Provision for income taxes

The provision for income taxes was comprised of the following components (in thousands):

	Year Ended December 31,
	2011			2010			2009
Current provision (benefit):
Federal	$	75,505		$	63,195		$	57,773
State	10,601			9,108			7,668
Foreign	293			348			313
	86,399			72,651			65,754
Deferred provision (benefit):
Federal	(3,209		)	3,894			723
State	(97		)	983			(996		)
	(3,306		)	4,877			(273		)
Non-current provision (benefit) resulting from allocating tax benefits directly to additional paid in capital and changes in liabilities:
Federal	(787		)	(474		)	1,067
State	(116		)	274			288
Foreign	6			27			(92		)
	(897		)	(173		)	1,263
Total provision for income taxes	$	82,196		$	77,355		$	66,744

Schedule of effective income rax rate reconciliation

The provision for income taxes varies from the amount of income tax determined by applying the applicable U.S. statutory tax rate to pre-tax income and the following:

	Year Ended December 31,
	2011		2010		2009
Statutory U.S. Federal tax rate	35.0	%	35.0	%	35.0	%
Increase (decrease) in rate resulting from:
State taxes—net of Federal benefit	3.1	%	3.3	%	3.1	%
Other, net	—	%	(0.1	)%	(0.7	)%
Effective tax rate	38.1	%	38.2	%	37.4	%

Schedule of deferred tax assets and liabilities

A summary of the tax effect of the significant components of deferred income taxes follows (in thousands):

	December 31,
	2011			2010
Gross deferred tax liabilities:
Unbilled receivables	$	3,560		$	9,673
Goodwill and other assets	71,979			59,708
Property and equipment	—			2,324
Total deferred tax liabilities	75,539			71,705
Gross deferred tax assets:
Property and equipment	(2,753		)	—
Capital and state operating loss carryforwards	(86		)	(138		)
Retirement and other liabilities	(28,823		)	(26,220		)
Allowance for potential contract losses and other contract reserves	(3,728		)	(3,316		)
Total deferred tax assets	(35,390		)	(29,674		)
Net deferred tax liabilities	$	40,149		$	42,031

Summary of income tax contingencies

A reconciliation of the beginning and ending balances of the total amounts of gross unrecognized tax benefits is as follows (in thousands):

	December 31,
	2011			2010			2009
Gross unrecognized tax benefits at beginning of year	$	2,519		$	1,680		$	1,516
Increases in tax positions related to prior years	87			508			—
Decreases in tax positions for prior years	(71		)	(26		)	(8		)
Increases in tax positions for current year	269			481			343
Settlements	(508		)	—			—
Lapse in statute of limitations	(961		)	(124		)	(171		)
Acquisitions - increase in tax position for prior years	105			—			—
Gross unrecognized tax benefits at end of year	$	1,440		$	2,519		$	1,680