Regulatory balancing accounts accumulate differences between revenues recognized and authorized revenue requirements until they are collected from customers or are refunded.
Regulatory balancing accounts include low income programs and purchased power and water accounts.
Debt expense is amortized over the lives of the respective issues.
Call premiums on the redemption of longterm debt, as well as unamortized debt expense, are deferred and amortized to the extent they will be recovered through future service rates.
As a result of American Water Capital Corp. ’s prepayment of the 5.62% Series C Senior Notes due December 21, 2018 (“Series C Senior Notes”) and 5.77% Series D Senior Notes due December 21, 2021 (“Series D Senior Notes”) and payment of a make-whole premium amount to the holders thereof of $34 million, the Company recorded a $6 million charge resulting from the early extinguishment of debt at the parent company.
Substantially all of the early debt extinguishment costs allocable to the Company’s utility subsidiaries were recorded as regulatory assets that the Company believes are probable of recovery in future rates.
Approximately $1 million of the early debt extinguishment costs allocable to the Company’s utility subsidiaries was amortized in 2017.
Purchase premium recoverable through rates is primarily the recovery of the acquisition premiums related to an asset acquisition by the Company’s California Utility subsidiary during 2002, and acquisitions in 2007 by the Company’s New Jersey Utility subsidiary.
As authorized for recovery by the California and New Jersey PUCs, these costs are being amortized to depreciation and amortization in the Consolidated Statements of Operations through November 2048.
Tank painting costs are generally deferred and amortized to operations and maintenance expense in the Consolidated Statements of Operations on a straight-line basis over periods ranging from two to fifteen years, as authorized by the regulatory authorities in their determination of rates charged for service.
Other regulatory assets include certain construction costs for treatment facilities, property tax stabilization, employee-related costs, deferred other postretirement benefit expense, business services project expenses, coastal water project costs, rate case expenditures and environmental remediation costs among others.
These costs are deferred because the amounts are being recovered in rates or are probable of recovery through rates in future periods.
Regulatory Liabilities Regulatory liabilities generally represent amounts that are probable of being credited or refunded to customers through the rate-making process.
Also, if costs expected to be incurred in the future are currently being recovered through rates, the Company records those expected future costs as regulatory liabilities.
The following table summarizes the composition of regulatory liabilities as of December 31:
## Table 0 ##
Income taxes recovered through rates relate to deferred taxes that will likely be refunded to the Company’s customers.
On December 22, 2017, the TCJA was signed into law, which, among other things, enacted significant and complex changes to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, including a reduction in the maximum U. S.  federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21% as of January 1, 2018.
The TCJA created significant
## Table 1 ##
(1) At December 31, 2008, balances did not include nonperforming derivatives of $512 million.
At December 31, 2008 and 2007 balances did not include nonperforming AFS debt securities of $291 million and $180 million.
At December 31, 2004, balances did not include $140 million of nonperforming securities primarily associated with the Fleet acquisition.
In addition, balances did not include nonperforming LHFS of $1.3 billion, $188 million, $80 million, $69 million, and $151 million at December 31, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, and 2004, respectively.
(2) Balances do not include loans accounted for in accordance with SOP 03-3 even though the customer may be contractually past due.
Loans accounted for in accordance with SOP 03-3 were written down to fair value upon acquisition and accrete interest income over the remaining life of the loan.
(3) In 2008, $512 million in interest income was estimated to be contractually due on nonperforming consumer loans and leases classified as nonperforming at December 31, 2008 provided that these loans and leases had been paid according to their terms and conditions, including troubled debt restructured loans of which $387 million were performing at December 31, 2008 and not included in the table above.
Approximately $124 million of the estimated $512 million in contractual interest was received and included in net income for 2008.
(4) Excludes small business commercial – domestic loans.
(5) In 2008, $260 million in interest income was estimated to be contractually due on nonperforming commercial loans and leases classified as nonperforming at December 31, 2008, including troubled debt restructured loans of which $13 million were performing at December 31, 2008 and not included in the table above.
Approximately $84 million of the estimated $260 million in contractual interest was received and included in net income for 2008.  n/a = not applicable
Note 20 – Fair Value of Financial Instruments (SFAS 107 Disclosure) SFAS No.107, “Disclosures About Fair Value of Financial Instruments” (SFAS 107), requires the disclosure of the estimated fair value of financial instruments including those financial instruments for which the Corporation did not elect the fair value option.
The fair values of such instruments have been derived, in part, by management’s assumptions, the estimated amount and timing of future cash flows and estimated discount rates.
Different assumptions could significantly affect these estimated fair values.
Accordingly, the net realizable values could be materially different from the estimates presented below.
In addition, the estimates are only indicative of the value of individual financial instruments and should not be considered an indication of the fair value of the Corporation.
The provisions of SFAS 107 do not require the disclosure of the fair value of lease financing arrangements and nonfinancial instruments, including goodwill and intangible assets such as purchased credit card, affinity and trust relationships.
The following disclosures represent financial instruments in which the ending balance at December 31, 2008 are not carried at fair value in its entirety on the Corporation’s Consolidated Balance Sheet.
Short-term Financial Instruments The carrying value of short-term financial instruments, including cash and cash equivalents, time deposits placed, federal funds sold and purchased, resale and certain repurchase agreements, commercial paper and other short-term investments and borrowings, approximates the fair value of these instruments.
These financial instruments generally expose the Corporation to limited credit risk and have no stated maturities or have short-term maturities and carry interest rates that approximate market.
In accordance with SFAS 159, the Corporation elected to fair value certain structured reverse repurchase agreements.
See Note 19 – Fair Value Disclosures to the Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on these structured reverse repurchase agreements.
Loans Fair values were generally determined by discounting both principal and interest cash flows expected to be collected using an observable discount rate for similar instruments with adjustments that management believes a market participant would consider in determining fair value.
The Corporation estimates the cash flows expected to be collected at acquisition using internal credit risk, interest rate and prepayment risk models that incorporate management’s best estimate of current key assumptions, such as default rates, loss severity and prepayment speeds for the life of the loan.
In accordance with SFAS 159, the Corporation elected to fair value certain large corporate loans which exceeded the Corporation’s single name credit risk concentration guidelines.
See Note 19 – Fair Value Disclosures to the Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on loans for which the Corporation adopted the fair value option.
Deposits The fair value for certain deposits with stated maturities was calculated by discounting contractual cash flows using current market rates for instruments with similar maturities.
The carrying value of foreign time deposits approximates fair value.
For deposits with no stated maturities, the carrying amount was considered to approximate fair value and does not take into account the significant value of the cost advantage and stability of the Corporation’s long-term relationships with depositors.
In accordance with SFAS 159, the Corporation elected to fair value certain long-term fixed rate deposits which are economically hedged with derivatives.
See Note 19 – Fair Value Disclosures to the Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on these long-term fixed rate deposits.
Long-term Debt The Corporation uses quoted market prices for its long-term debt when available.
When quoted market prices are not available, fair value is estimated based on current market interest rates and credit spreads for debt with similar maturities.
The book and fair values of certain financial instruments at December 31, 2008 and 2007 were as follows:
## Table 2 ##
(1) Loans are presented net of allowance for loan losses.
Amounts exclude leases.
(2) The fair value is determined based on the present value of future cash flows using credit spreads or risk adjusted rates of return that a buyer of the portfolio would require in the dislocated markets as of December 31, 2008.
However, the Corporation expects to collect the principal cash flows underlying the book values as well as the related interest cash flows.

<table><tr><td></td><td>2017</td><td>2016</td></tr><tr><td>Income taxes recovered through rates</td><td>$1,242</td><td>$—</td></tr><tr><td>Removal costs recovered through rates</td><td>315</td><td>316</td></tr><tr><td>Pension and other postretirement benefit balancing accounts</td><td>48</td><td>55</td></tr><tr><td>Other</td><td>59</td><td>32</td></tr><tr><td>Total Regulatory Liabilities</td><td>$1,664</td><td>$403</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td></td><td colspan="5"> December 31</td></tr><tr><td>(Dollars in millions)</td><td> 2008</td><td>2007</td><td>2006</td><td>2005</td><td>2004</td></tr><tr><td> Consumer</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Residential mortgage</td><td>$7,044</td><td>$1,999</td><td>$660</td><td>$570</td><td>$554</td></tr><tr><td>Home equity</td><td>2,670</td><td>1,340</td><td>289</td><td>151</td><td>94</td></tr><tr><td>Discontinued real estate</td><td>77</td><td>n/a</td><td>n/a</td><td>n/a</td><td>n/a</td></tr><tr><td>Direct/Indirect consumer</td><td>26</td><td>8</td><td>4</td><td>3</td><td>5</td></tr><tr><td>Other consumer</td><td>91</td><td>95</td><td>77</td><td>61</td><td>85</td></tr><tr><td> Total consumer<sup>-3</sup></td><td>9,908</td><td>3,442</td><td>1,030</td><td>785</td><td>738</td></tr><tr><td> Commercial</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Commercial – domestic<sup>-4</sup></td><td>2,040</td><td>852</td><td>494</td><td>550</td><td>847</td></tr><tr><td>Commercial real estate</td><td>3,906</td><td>1,099</td><td>118</td><td>49</td><td>87</td></tr><tr><td>Commercial lease financing</td><td>56</td><td>33</td><td>42</td><td>62</td><td>266</td></tr><tr><td>Commercial – foreign</td><td>290</td><td>19</td><td>13</td><td>34</td><td>267</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>6,292</td><td>2,003</td><td>667</td><td>695</td><td>1,467</td></tr><tr><td>Small business commercial – domestic</td><td>205</td><td>152</td><td>90</td><td>31</td><td>8</td></tr><tr><td> Total commercial<sup>-5</sup></td><td>6,497</td><td>2,155</td><td>757</td><td>726</td><td>1,475</td></tr><tr><td> Total nonperforming loans and leases</td><td>16,405</td><td>5,597</td><td>1,787</td><td>1,511</td><td>2,213</td></tr><tr><td>Foreclosed properties</td><td>1,827</td><td>351</td><td>69</td><td>92</td><td>102</td></tr><tr><td> Total nonperforming assets</td><td>$18,232</td><td>$5,948</td><td>$1,856</td><td>$1,603</td><td>$2,315</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td></td><td colspan="4"> December 31</td></tr><tr><td></td><td colspan="2"> 2008</td><td colspan="2">2007</td></tr><tr><td>(Dollars in millions)</td><td> Book Value<sup>-1</sup></td><td> Fair Value</td><td>Book Value<sup>-1</sup></td><td>Fair Value</td></tr><tr><td> Financial assets</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Loans<sup>-2</sup></td><td>$886,198</td><td>$841,629</td><td>$842,392</td><td>$847,405</td></tr><tr><td> Financial liabilities</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Deposits</td><td>882,997</td><td>883,987</td><td>805,177</td><td>806,511</td></tr><tr><td>Long-term debt</td><td>268,292</td><td>260,291</td><td>197,508</td><td>195,835</td></tr></table>

Question: what was the growth rate of the regulatory liability from 2016 to 2017
Answer: 3.12903