Note 15. Long-Term Incentive Plan

The Partnership has a Long Term Incentive Plan, as amended (the “LTIP”), whereby a total of 4,300,000 common units were authorized for delivery with respect to awards under the LTIP. The LTIP provides for awards to employees, consultants and directors of the General Partner and employees and consultants of affiliates of the Partnership who perform services for the Partnership. The LTIP allows for the award of options, unit appreciation rights, restricted units, phantom units, distribution equivalent rights, unit awards and substitute awards. Awards granted pursuant to the LTIP vest pursuant to the terms of the grant agreements.

Awards granted under the LTIP are authorized by the Compensation Committee of the board of directors of the General Partner (the “Committee”) from time to time. Additionally and in accordance with the LTIP, the Committee established a “CEO Authorized LTIP” program pursuant to which the Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) may grant awards of phantom units without distribution equivalent rights to employees of the General Partner and the Partnership’s subsidiaries, other than named executive officers. The CEO Authorized LTIP program was approved for three consecutive calendar years commencing January 1, 2014, subject to modification or earlier termination by the Committee. During each calendar year of the program, the CEO is authorized to grant awards of up to an aggregate amount of $2.0 million of phantom units payable in common units upon vesting, with unused dollar amounts carrying over in the next year, and no individual grant may be made for an award valued at the time of grant of more than $550,000, unless otherwise previously approved by the Committee. Awards granted pursuant to the CEO Authorized LTIP generally would be for a term of six years and vest in equal tranches at the end of each of the fourth, fifth and sixth anniversary dates of the particular award.

Accounting guidance for share‑based compensation requires that a non‑vested equity share unit awarded to an employee is to be measured at its fair value as if it were vested and issued on the grant date. The fair value of the above awards at their respective grant dates approximated the fair value of the Partnership’s common unit at that date.

Compensation cost for an award of share-based employee compensation classified as equity, as is the case of the Partnership’s awards, is recognized over the requisite service period. The requisite service period for the Partnership is from the grant date through the vesting dates described in the grant agreement. The Partnership recognizes as compensation expense for the awards granted to employees and non-employee directors the value of the portion of the award that is ultimately expected to vest over the requisite service period on a straight-line basis. In accordance with the guidance issued for share-based compensation, the Partnership estimated forfeitures at the time of grant. Such estimates, which were based on the Partnership’s service history, will be revised, if necessary, in subsequent periods if actual forfeitures differ from estimates.

The Partnership recorded total compensation expense related to the above awards of $4.2 million, $4.3 million and $3.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively, which is included in selling, general and administrative expenses in the accompanying consolidated statements of operations. The total compensation cost related to the non-vested awards not yet recognized at December 31, 2016 was approximately $9.9 million and is expected to be recognized ratably over the remaining requisite service periods.

Status of Non‑Vested Units

The following table presents a summary of the status of the non‑vested phantom units:

Repurchase Program

In May 2009, the board of directors of the General Partner authorized the repurchase of the Partnership’s common units (the “Repurchase Program”) for the purpose of meeting the General Partner’s anticipated obligations to deliver common units under the LTIP and meeting the General Partner’s obligations under existing employment agreements and other employment related obligations of the General Partner (collectively, the “General Partner’s Obligations”). The General Partner is authorized to acquire up to 1,242,427 of its common units in the aggregate over an extended period of time, consistent with the General Partner’s Obligations. Common units may be repurchased from time to time in open market transactions, including block purchases, or in privately negotiated transactions. Such authorized unit repurchases may be modified, suspended or terminated at any time and are subject to price and economic and market conditions, applicable legal requirements and available liquidity. Since the Repurchase Program was implemented, the General Partner repurchased 838,505 common units pursuant to the Repurchase Program for approximately $24.8 million, none of which were repurchased in 2016.