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Common Stock | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2011
Common Stock [Abstract] |
Common Stock | Common Stock The Stock Purchase Plan provides interested investors the opportunity to make optional cash investments and to reinvest all or a percentage of their cash dividends in shares of the Company's common stock. The K-Plan is partially funded with the Company's common stock. From January 2009 through December 2011, purchases of shares of common stock on the open market were used to fund the Stock Purchase Plan and K-Plan. At December 31, 2011, there were 23.2 million shares of common stock reserved for original issuance under the Stock Purchase Plan and K-Plan. The Company depends on earnings from its divisions and dividends from its subsidiaries to pay dividends on common stock. The declaration and payment of dividends is at the sole discretion of the board of directors, subject to limitations imposed by the Company's credit agreements, federal and state laws, and applicable regulatory limitations. In addition, the Company and Centennial are generally restricted to paying dividends out of capital accounts or net assets. The most restrictive limitations are discussed below. Pursuant to a covenant under a credit agreement, Centennial may only make distributions to the Company in an amount up to 100 percent of Centennial's consolidated net income after taxes for the immediately preceding fiscal year. Intermountain and Cascade have regulatory limitations on the amount of dividends each can pay. Based on these limitations, approximately $2.2 billion of the net assets of the Company's subsidiaries were restricted from being used to transfer funds to the Company at December 31, 2011. In addition, the Company's credit agreement also contains restrictions on dividend payments. The most restrictive limitation requires the Company not to permit the ratio of funded debt to capitalization (determined with respect to the Company alone, excluding its subsidiaries) to be greater than 65 percent. Based on this limitation, approximately $136 million of the Company's (excluding its subsidiaries) net assets would be restricted from use for dividend payments at December 31, 2011. In addition, state regulatory commissions may require the Company to maintain certain capitalization ratios. These requirements are not expected to affect the Company's ability to pay dividends in the near term.

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