Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Greg McGowan - Sidoti & Co.
Greg McGowan – Sidoti & Co.
Rick, can you go through those legal recoveries that you mentioned, and I think those are with the PCB and the like. I think it was $3.9 million that went into O&M, and I thought I heard something about another $3.1 at the corporate level?
Rick Hawley
Sure, and I'll break it into pieces. At the gas company we had a $2 million recovery related to previously incurred PCB costs, and then we recovered $5 million in previously incurred legal expenses, $1.9 of which went to the gas company against O&M. So that's a total reduction of O&M at the gas company of $2 plus the $1.9, so that's $3.9.
And then you were right. $3.1 of the $5 million went against corporate operating income or increased corporate operating income.
Greg McGowan - Sidoti & Co.
Also it looks like, when you look at the demand here, I think you had $3 million from customer interest and [inaudible]. Could you just give me a sense of, you know, that's rather impressive. I mean, what do you kind of attribute this to?
Rick Hawley
I wasn't sure, Greg, I followed your question. You're asking about demand or customer interest?
Greg McGowan - Sidoti & Co.
Yes, both, if you can kind of get into those two.
Rick Hawley
Sure. Well on the demand at the gas company level - and, again, remember we give back about 55% of this at the corporate level - but at the gas company level, you know, weather added about $4.5 million to net income, just over $7 million in pre-tax income.
Greg McGowan - Sidoti & Co.
This is just for the quarter, correct?
Rick Hawley
No, that's year-to-date. Quarter had very little weather in - going through. So we're up, you know, about $4.5 million on a net income basis at the gas company because of weather. Compared to last year, we saw demand unrelated to weather up about $4 million but to be candid with you, according to our forecasts, we're looking at non-weather-related demand being about flat for the year compared to our budgets. So it's up a little bit compared to last year, but we're looking to be pretty close to what we forecasted earlier in the year for nonweather-related demand.
If you look at - then switching gears completely and going to the interest expense or the customer interest, that's a net number. Our customers are allowed to make budget pay payments so they get ahead on their bills. We pay them interest on that. We're actually - the interest expense related to that is down a little bit this year, driven primarily by the fact that because of higher gas bills it eats into the budget pay quicker than it has in previous years.
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