9. Utility Group Allocation

There is a second allocation of costs within the utility group which is allocated on a four-factor by Suburban only to the affiliated utilities, i.e., it excludes the 547 unaffiliated entities serviced under a contract by the parent company. In its opening brief DRA (at 25 - 29) summarizes its analysis of the allocation proposed by Suburban which is a 50.9% rate for Suburban whereas DRA recalculates the rate to be 50.8%. DRA is mainly concerned with Suburban's manipulation of payroll and labor data. We find this to be too granular (a tenth of a percent) at this time given the comparatively large adjustment above for parent costs allocated to all entities and we therefore decline to make another minor adjustment at this time. We again warn Suburban that it must be reasonable in its calculations and consistent in its data in the next general rate case.