republic services , inc . notes to consolidated financial statements 2014 ( continued ) employee stock purchase plan republic employees are eligible to participate in an employee stock purchase plan . the plan allows participants to purchase our common stock for 95% ( 95 % ) of its quoted market price on the last day of each calendar quarter . for the years ended december 31 , 2017 , 2016 and 2015 , issuances under this plan totaled 113941 shares , 130085 shares and 141055 shares , respectively . as of december 31 , 2017 , shares reserved for issuance to employees under this plan totaled 0.4 million and republic held employee contributions of approximately $ 1.8 million for the purchase of common stock . 12 . stock repurchases and dividends stock repurchases stock repurchase activity during the years ended december 31 , 2017 and 2016 follows ( in millions except per share amounts ) : .
as part of the employee stock purchase plan what was the percent of the decline in issuance under this plan from 2016 to 2017
as of december 31 , 2017 , there were 0.5 million repurchased shares pending settlement and $ 33.8 million was unpaid and included within other accrued liabilities . in october 2017 , our board of directors added $ 2.0 billion to the existing share repurchase authorization that now extends through december 31 , 2020 . before this , $ 98.4 million remained under a prior authorization . share repurchases under the program may be made through open market purchases or privately negotiated transactions in accordance with applicable federal securities laws . while the board of directors has approved the program , the timing of any purchases , the prices and the number of shares of common stock to be purchased will be determined by our management , at its discretion , and will depend upon market conditions and other factors . the share repurchase program may be extended , suspended or discontinued at any time . as of december 31 , 2017 , the remaining authorized purchase capacity under our october 2017 repurchase program was $ 1.8 billion . in december 2015 , our board of directors changed the status of 71272964 treasury shares to authorized and unissued . in doing so , the number of our issued shares was reduced by the stated amount . our accounting policy is to deduct the par value from common stock and to reflect the excess of cost over par value as a deduction from additional paid-in capital . the change in unissued shares resulted in a reduction of $ 2295.3 million in treasury stock , $ 0.6 million in common stock , and $ 2294.7 million in additional paid-in capital . there was no effect on our total stockholders 2019 equity position as a result of the change . dividends in october 2017 , our board of directors approved a quarterly dividend of $ 0.345 per share . cash dividends declared were $ 446.3 million , $ 423.8 million and $ 404.3 million for the years ended december 31 , 2017 , 2016 and 2015 , respectively . as of december 31 , 2017 , we recorded a quarterly dividend payable of $ 114.4 million to shareholders of record at the close of business on january 2 , 2018 . 13 . earnings per share basic earnings per share is computed by dividing net income attributable to republic services , inc . by the weighted average number of common shares ( including vested but unissued rsus ) outstanding during the .