9.	Income Taxes :

Our quarterly tax provision and our quarterly estimate of our annual effective tax rate is subject to significant volatility due to several factors, including variability in accurately predicting our income before taxes and taxable income and loss and the

mix of jurisdictions to which they relate, changes in law and relative changes of expenses or losses for which tax benefits are

not

recognized. Additionally, our effective tax rate can be more or less volatile based on the amount of income before taxes. For example, the impact of discrete items and non-deductible expenses on our effective tax rate is greater when our income before taxes is lower.

For the

three

months

ended

September 30, 2017,

the Company recorded an income tax provision of

$1.0

million, or

30.9%

of pre-tax income, compared to an income tax provision of

$0.5

million on loss before taxes of

$1.3

million for the

three

months ended

September 30, 2016

resulting in an effective tax rate of negative

36.4%.

The tax provision recorded for the

three

months ended

September 30, 2017

included a

$0.3

million favorable return to provision adjustment. The tax provision recorded for the

three

months ended

September 30, 2016

is primarily a result of an increase in tax expense from state and local income taxes applied against forecasted income for

2016

and discrete tax expense recorded during the

third

quarter of

2016,

applied against a net loss for the quarter.

For the

nine

months ended

September 30, 2017,

the Company recorded an income tax provision of

$5.7

million, or

28.0%

of pre-tax income, compared to an income tax provision of

$3.4

million, or

77.0%,

for the

nine

months ended

September 30, 2016.

In the

first

quarter of

2017,

the Company made an out-of-period adjustment to correct and record previously unrecognized deferred tax assets, and the associated tax benefit, related to the SERP. The adjustment, which accumulated since the inception of the plan in

2005,

resulted in an increase to after-tax income of

$1.9

million in the

first

quarter of

2017.

The Company determined that this adjustment was

not

material to its current or prior period consolidated financial statements. During the

nine

months ended

September 30, 2016,

the Company recorded a valuation allowance of

$0.8

million to reduce certain state deferred tax assets to the amount that is more likely than

not

to be realized. The valuation allowance increased the Company’s effective tax rate by

18.3%

for the

nine

months ended

September 30, 2016.