diff --git a/graphrag/index/emit/parquet_table_emitter.py b/graphrag/index/emit/parquet_table_emitter.py
index 1ba61713..068e8d08 100644
--- a/graphrag/index/emit/parquet_table_emitter.py
+++ b/graphrag/index/emit/parquet_table_emitter.py
@@ -21,12 +21,12 @@ class ParquetTableEmitter(TableEmitter):
 
     _storage: PipelineStorage
     _on_error: ErrorHandlerFn
+    extension = "parquet"
 
     def __init__(
         self,
         storage: PipelineStorage,
         on_error: ErrorHandlerFn,
-        extension = "parquet",
     ):
         """Create a new Parquet Table Emitter."""
         self._storage = storage
diff --git a/graphrag/query/input/loaders/utils.py b/graphrag/query/input/loaders/utils.py
index 3c680f0f..38782329 100644
--- a/graphrag/query/input/loaders/utils.py
+++ b/graphrag/query/input/loaders/utils.py
@@ -165,8 +165,7 @@ def to_optional_float(data: pd.Series, column_name: str | None) -> float | None:
         if value is None:
             return None
         if not isinstance(value, float):
-            msg = f"value is not a float: {value} ({type(value)})"
-            raise ValueError(msg)
+            return float(value)
     else:
         msg = f"Column {column_name} not found in data"
         raise ValueError(msg)
diff --git a/graphrag/utils/storage.py b/graphrag/utils/storage.py
index 58f07c35..b902a851 100644
--- a/graphrag/utils/storage.py
+++ b/graphrag/utils/storage.py
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ async def _load_table_from_storage(name: str, storage: PipelineStorage) -> pd.Da
                 return pd.read_parquet(BytesIO(await storage.get(name, as_bytes=True)))
             case "json":
                 return pd.read_json(
-                    StringIO(await storage.get(name, as_bytes=True)),
+                    StringIO(await storage.get(name)),
                     lines=False,
                     orient="records",
                 )