Net Income Per Unit (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

The calculation of net income per unit is as follows (dollars in thousands, except units and per unit amounts):



	Year Ended December 31,
	2019			2018			2017
Net income attributable to partners	$	96,749		$	90,182		$	69,409
Less: General partner's distribution (including IDRs) ⁽¹⁾	33,492			25,777			18,797
Less: Limited partners' distribution	83,873			76,113			69,057
Distributions in excess of earnings	$	(20,616	)	$	(11,708	)	$	(18,445	)

General partner's earnings:
Distributions (including IDRs)⁽¹⁾	$	33,492		$	25,777		$	18,797
Distributions in excess of earnings	(412		)	(234		)	(368		)
Total general partner's earnings	$	33,080		$	25,543		$	18,429

Limited partners' earnings on common units:
Distributions	$	83,873		$	76,113		$	69,057
Distributions in excess of earnings	(20,204		)	(11,474		)	(18,077		)
Total limited partners' earnings on common units	$	63,669		$	64,639		$	50,980

Weighted average limited partner units outstanding:
Common units - basic	24,413,294			24,390,286			24,348,063
Common units - diluted	24,418,641			24,396,881			24,376,972

Net income per limited partner unit:
Common - basic	$	2.61		$	2.65		$	2.09
Common - diluted ⁽²⁾	$	2.61		$	2.65		$	2.09

⁽¹⁾ General partner distributions (including IDRs) consist of the 2% general partner interest and IDRs, which represent the right of the general partner to receive increasing percentages of quarterly distributions of available cash from operating surplus in excess of 0.43125 per unit per quarter. See Note 12 for further discussion related to IDRs.

⁽²⁾ There were no outstanding common unit equivalents excluded from the diluted earnings per unit calculation during both years ended December 31, 2019 and December 31, 2017. Outstanding common unit equivalents totaling 1,776 were excluded from the diluted earnings per unit calculation for the years ended December 31, 2018, as these common unit equivalents did not have a dilutive effect under the treasury stock method.