July 6, 2010 in Nation/World

Post office announces 2-cent rate increase

Associated Press

Tags:mailpostagestampsU.S. Postal Service

WASHINGTON — The post office wants to increase the price of a stamp by 2 cents to 46 cents starting in January. The agency has been battered by massive losses and declining mail volume and faces a financial crisis.

Postal officials announced a wide-ranging series of proposed price increases Tuesday, averaging about 5 percent, and covering first class, advertising mail, periodicals, packages and other services.

The request now goes to the independent Postal Rate Commission which has 90 days to respond. If approved, the increase would take effect Jan. 2.

“The Postal Service faces a serious risk of financial insolvency,” postal vice president Stephen M. Kearney said.

Kearney said the agency is facing a $7 billion loss in 2011. The rate increase will bring in an extra $2.5 billion, meaning it still faces a $4.7 billion loss.

The rate increase is part of a series of money-saving plans announced in March. These also include reducing mail deliveries to five days a week, closing offices and making other cuts in expenses. Congress must agree to eliminating deliveries on Saturdays.

While the cost of a first-class stamp would go up to 46 cents, people who bought “Forever” stamps at lower prices will still be able to use them for first-class mail without paying the difference.

Officials also said they plan a new design for Forever stamps, which currently have am image of the Liberty Bell. New Forever stamps will have images of evergreen trees. All Forever stamps would remain valid.

In addition to the 46-cent rate for the first ounce of a letter the cost for each additional ounce would go up a penny to 18 cents. The cost to mail a post card would go up 2 cents to 30 cents.

The price to send periodicals would go up about 8 percent and other rates for advertising mail, parcels and services will also go up by varying amounts.

The current 44-cent first-class rate took effect May 11, 2009.

The agency lost $3.8 billion last fiscal year despite cutting 40,000 full-time positions and making other reductions. It has continued to face significant losses this year.

The weak economy has sharply reduced mail volume as companies cut their advertising. At the same time there has been a significant drop in lucrative first-class mail, with more and more people turning to the Internet to communicate with each other as well as to receive and pay bills.

The proposal drew a prompt complaint from the mailing industry.

“This proposed rate increase amounts to another tax imposed on Americans at a time when the economy can least afford it,” said Tony Conway, executive director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, a group representing charities and other organizations.

“Consumers everywhere will pay more for the letters and packages they need to send; businesses — large and small — will suffer and even more jobs will be lost,” complained Conway, who was designated spokesman for the Affordable Mail Alliance, a coalition of businesses, charities and other mailers formed to oppose the increase.

Postal officials also have proposed eliminating Saturday mail delivery as a means of cutting costs, a change that would require congressional approval.

Post office finances are also complicated by the requirement that the agency make annual payments to pre-fund future health benefits for retirees, something not required of other government agencies.

And the postal inspector general contends that the Postal Service has been overcharged billions of dollars for retirement benefits for employees who worked for the old Post Office Department before it was converted to the Postal Service in 1970.

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25 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

straighttalk on July 06 at 9:36 a.m.
Eliminate the Saturday pickup and delivery and eliminate some of the very limited used post offices or limit their weekly hours. Snail mail is quickly becoming a thing of the past as wise and educated individuals use the internet for their personal and business communications.
Albert on July 06 at 9:40 a.m.
We have experienced a 50% loss of sales from our online bookstore because of the increased “shipping costs”. Now our “union-led” postal non-service will guarantee that our sales will again plummet. The result is of course that we no longer purchase books from our local Spokane sources, thus more local revenue is lost. How sad. It is high time to see this very inefficient, top heavy, union polluted operation get real with the facts of economic life. If you want to stay in business, then get a hold on financial reality “Postal Service”. We will simply find “alternatives” to your ancient operation - like online bill payments, more online documentation distribution, etc. Wake up!
madscientist on July 06 at 9:53 a.m.
Don’t play these games from the post office. Use online bill pay, send emails, use a phone. The post office is not needed.
While congress has the right to create a post office, it is not required and no longer necessary. I can’t even remember the last time I bought stamps. Don’t give in.
lewis8457 on July 06 at 10:04 a.m.
Put some stamp machines in the post offices or stores that use cash!
Train your people how to move faster!
Give your carriers the ability to sell stamps.
It is called customer service.
empyrius on July 06 at 10:08 a.m.
Boycott the evil communist (read: unionized!) U.S. postal service.
Five dollars an hour for all postal employees and no benefits: tis about time our government servants find out what the “free”-market is . . .
Albert on July 06 at 10:09 a.m.
Good morning Lewis! GREAT IDEAS!!! Not kidding, these would work.
MrNatural on July 06 at 11:30 a.m.
Well…I feel the USPS does a wonderful efficient job of delivering mail. I may seem old fashion but I write letters, pay bills and receive my prescriptions via USPS and find it the best deal in town. I feel USPS is one of the finest institutions in the country and always look forward to receiving my mail on Saturday. USPS has also been considered the best way to supply mass distribution of vaccination in the event of an epidemic or terrorist attack… At .50c a letter it’s still a bargain…but this is just my opinion.
Dazzeetrader11 on July 06 at 12:39 p.m.
It’s the Unions that are killing the cost of doing business at the Post Office.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303828304575180421298413374.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
The only way for mail to work is to privatize and let companies compete. The Unions have lost their effectiveness. …but they’re protected by Obama’s group, Gregoire’s group and Verner’s group. See ing a trend here as to who’s in lockstep?
Read that article. It sheds light on why the PO is simply too ineffective and costs to much internally. AND this Union garbage is in every sector….time for someone to let them fail.
In Spokane, police and sure firemen will have major layoffs this year as the unions try to keep higher wages for their senior people and their leaders. People ( who they’re supposed to serve) are of little concern. Time for a change.
DonJulio on July 06 at 12:40 p.m.
Albert….so the communist, unionized US Postal Service costs too much, which is going to hurt your business? So, my question is, why haven’t you used the holy free-market private carriers such as FedEx and UPS? Perhaps they are 3x as much as USPS and you’d have lost your business years ago without the USPS?
DonJulio on July 06 at 12:43 p.m.
Give your head a shake Daisy. Since when does the US Postal Service employee unions meet with city mayors?
misjustice on July 06 at 12:51 p.m.
@Mr. Natural; I agree!
I think that the USPS does wonders, considering that it has to operate solely from the revenue that it produces. I continue to be amazed that for 44 cents I can drop a letter into a blue box and it gets delivered clear across the nation in 3 days!
Additionally, I am more than a little weary of the privatize every thing movement currently afoot in this nation.
I support the rate hike and will continue to support the USPS!
Dazzeetrader11 on July 06 at 1:47 p.m.
You missed the point Don. Unions control city hall now. Verner is in bed with them. This isn’t the FEDERAL post office union…every other union though.
And yes DOn…the only way to lower cost for mail is to do exactly what is rational. Let the Fed Ex UPS types view for services. Not a grant…but serious competition. That’ll drive overhead and taxpayer costs down plenty.
Doesn’t matter if it’s Medicare, SS, Post office…they ALL are just too expensive to survive without government …WE pay the government….to keep services going well. Obviously the USPS isn’t going well…if for nothing else because of their Union costs.
Complain all you want Msj…lousy management will always fail…unless we the taxpayers go broke first. This is just socialism..wherein the government manages all money and all things. Unions love it. It’s an eventual loser. We don’t need a crisis to wake us up. It’s here…depends on how much brainwashing Americans can tolerate. the cost is simply too high…..and it’s the unions that are responsible for that.
November is coming…no matter how much the “let the government take care of everything” crowd complains. The change we got wasn’t the change that was good for America.
If you love socialism…call yourself what you are…a “Socialist”. BUT before you do, read the article I posted. Think about what’s in it. Take your time…but it’s worth a slow thoughtful read.
misjustice on July 06 at 2:54 p.m.
It was good paying union jobs which built the middle class in this nation. It’s obvious from your foaming at the mouth rants that you HATE unions, and union workers. Why do you hate middle class people, DAZEE? You rage against the middle class everytime you RAGE against union jobs.
Just whom do the corporations think they are going to sell the crap that they make in China to? Even the racist Henry Ford understood that he needed to pay his workers a living wage, if he ever expected to sell his cars to anyone besides the uber rich.
“Ford was, among other things, a famously domineering employer and a supporter of fascists, but he was also an economic pioneer. He not only perfected the techniques of mass assembly of automobiles, but he also foresaw that his efforts would not amount to great profits if average Americans could not afford to buy all those cars. He saw that putting higher wages in his workers’ pockets was good for his own bottom line, and good for the national economy, too.”
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/01/09/ford_pay_workers_well.php
“The middle class is fading fast. Stagnant wages, rising costs for life’s essentials and massive debt are taking their toll. What can we do to reverse this trend before it is too late? We must recognize that cheap labor can build cars and appliances, but only organized labor can build a middle class.”
“While the middle class struggles, the country’s wealthiest people are riding the stock market gravy train. Much of my economic work in the past several years has been with farming. Farmers have a better word for those who make money because of what they own instead of what they do. They are called landlords. Landlords, like corporate shareholders, simply sit back and take part of what others have earned.”
“What many politicians hail as the “ownership society” is really a landlord society. It is one in which money that could be used to reward labor gets skimmed off by a fortunate few. This repackaging of our old friend, trickle-down economics, is downright dangerous.”
“All strategies that trade good jobs for cheap toasters eventually erode the market for the goods and services being provided. A society composed of a handful of hyper-wealthy individuals and millions of people living on the economic edge is not the sound, stable market needed for growth. Only a middle class with a widely distributed buying power can provide that. What economists call the “income distribution” in this country is, from a middle-class perspective, as bad as it has been since the years leading up to the Great Depression.”
“The ideology of ownership would have us believe that the rich getting richer is just how things work in our economic system. The less we tamper with the way profits are distributed among owners and workers, the better off we all will be. The problem is, of course, that the rich and powerful monkey with the system all the time, and always to their benefit at the expense of the middle class.”
By Richard A. Levins,Professor Emeritus of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota
MrNatural on July 06 at 2:57 p.m.
Oh Daisy…your malice and contempt at your fellow American postal workers has finally struck me as exasperatingly boorish this time. You ascribe to the intolerant notion that all people employed by any form of government are in some continual conspiracy to erode your existence…You continually take cheap shots at elected officials as being the prime cause of all things bad and that everything is bad. You blame Obama and Verner for everything regardless of the topic even if they have no involvement (including the post office)…have you ever thanked your postman for keeping a routine schedule regardless of the foul weather they contend with?…Have you ever felt satisfied at all with the quality of our maintained infrastructure, public safety and public health given the fact that these agencies have had continual budget cuts and layoffs while elected conservatives buy racetracks? …Have you ever considered that even though their politics differ from yours that our elected officials do try to aspire for the betterment of the spiteful polarized community they serve and that they are still regardless of your preconception…human beings? And are you so deluded to believe that a republican would treat you any different or better than any current administration? Do you really understand the difference between true socialism and democracy? Had you given your social security benefits to the stock market as Bush had wanted would you feel safer now? Geez!
I truly apologize for this personal retort at you but never have I seen anyone as consistently condescending solely based on conjecture while purposely ignoring the positive outcome of our government/public agencies or the fact that in this case these postal workers continue to do their jobs diligently even for the viciously ungrateful.
DonJulio on July 06 at 3:12 p.m.
Yes Daisy, we should eliminate all services that are not mandated by the constitution….because after all, anything formulated after the constitution is an expansion of government, and, by way of regulation and control of these industries, a form of socialism. I agree, we should not implement collectivist principles to control industry (because, that would be socialism). Thus, I am glad we can agree that government should stay out of our lives and let the private sector do its job. Thus, I’m glad we agree that government should not have their hand in controling the porn industry (let them build next to a school), abortion industry (let them abort in third tri-mester), etc. Likewise, there should be no Food and Drug Administration to tell me what I can or can’t eat (or, what might kill me and what might not - if it kills enough people I’m sure people would stop buying it, right?) All roads should be turned over to the private sector. Let them put tolls on all roads. The government has no business being in the real estate business. Turn all parks (state, national, county, etc) over to the private sector and let them log, mine, drill, etc as they see fit.
As far as UNIONS….yes, they are solely responsible for the Federal Budget shortfall. It COULDN’T have ANYTHING to do with the Federal military budget of $663,255,000,000 (in 2009). So the US military spending is first in the world by a LONG shot. In fact, the US spends more than China, UK, France, Russia, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Italy, India, South Korea, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Spain, Turkey, Israel, and Greece…..COMBINED!…but certainly THAT doesn’t leave us in a competitive disadvantage in a global marketplace. Its ALL the UNIONS fault!
Dazzeetrader11 on July 06 at 4:47 p.m.
Well you have your opinions and I canback mine up with the data. Soon, the unions will have run their course(s) and be dismissed as the money grubbers they are. No free lunch people.
And NO Ms J…unions did NOT build a middle class. Good paying jobs did. That’s business…successful businesses do that.
Unions soon will be relegated to government jobs…why? It’s a payoff for support in money and votes. Remember though…what the governments gives can be taken away as well.
Postal workers…and forget the rain, sleet and snow garbage….doesn’t happen. Have any of you looked at the pension schedules lately for postal workers and teachers ( NEA anyone?) ?. No wonder the states all are going broke. WHen pensioners make more in retirement than they did during their overpaid (!) careers, it’s an unsustainable system. The new and working people pay for the guys who do nothing but veg and garden.
So where do they get hte money to help fund this silly system? YOU! And when California is short by $500 million-billions and declares bankrupty, you’ll know why. Same thing with the teachers…and you’ll know why.
Travel and get a world view sometime…you’ll figure it out.
Dazzeetrader11 on July 06 at 5:17 p.m.
s an addendum…not that any of you really READ…nothing was ever so clear an example of union post excess happened about 6 weeks ago at your city council meeting. I watch thos eonline from wherever I am.
Amber ( true greenie liberal) proposed to have junk mail banned. She had great reasons too! Waste of paper, garbage excesses…nobody reads the junk, …all the best reasons a liberal might think up. I actually agreed with her.
Of course Mr “red faced” Rush and Synder ( where’s you get that?) nodded approval….untill…the Union memebers and the local “boss” got up and complained bitterly about Amber’s motion. RUsh and Snyder choked and then blanched. Seem that the union was against the idea. Heaven forbid! Why? because without junk mail, layoffs would ensue and would a reduction in positions and hours for work…you know just to keep those union workers busy with something ( like they ever are).
So Rush and Snyder girded their loins properly….Corker blanched with embarrassment…and Mr Apple simply couldn’t believe his ears. Shogan…who is always in a confused nasty state…stared blankly ahead.
Even though Amber had a wonderful idea….Rush and Synder ( both cowards to their constituency…but heros to the union) voted in favor of keeping junk mail as a useless adjunct to post office services. Why? They wanted the union vote. SO th emotion died right there….for no good or proper reason…it was the union muscle to leech off the people even though junk mail is just what we call it “JUNK”. For one night the hypocrits forgot the trees, the paper, the garbage….all the smoke to burn it, etc…but they got their union money! Nice story…true too…. ALL to worship at the altar of the unions. Money for the useless unions willl be spent.
And with that example,…go see it if you want..it’s in the archives online for channel five therein Spokane…..I’ll close this nonsense. JsJ..one more thing…continue your brain growth…you sure need to think before you emese thoughts undefensible on their face. With that…best wishes.
misjustice on July 06 at 5:27 p.m.
Where the hell did the “good paying jobs” come from DAZEE RAIDER? From the UNIONS which bargained for them!
The USPS does not get tax dollars. All of their expenses, including their retirement, are funded through postal fees. I don’t begrudge postal employees their good paying jobs or their well funded retirements.
Mr. Natural nailed it when he pointed to your malice and contempt for anything not corporate.
Why do you HATE the middle class?
misjustice on July 06 at 7:24 p.m.
“Unions and the GI Bill have often been credited with creating the middle class in America. Conservative Republicans would be perfectly happy going back to the days when there were just two classes - the rich and the poor and no middle class.
Conservative Republicans love destroying unions and the middle class and would love doing away with Medicare and public schools and to replace them with vouchers.
They would also like to do away with Social Security by having workers invest in the ups and downs of Wall Street, instead of having government provide guaranteed death, disability and retirement benefits to middle class workers and their families.
Conservative Republicans despise unions because they give money to Democrats and because they help the middle class, not the rich.”
http://lewistownsentinel.com/page/content.detail/id/519149.html?nav=5059&showlayout=0
So, there, that is why DAZEE RAIDER and those of her ilk hate unions, and the working people of the middle class. Only problem with their logic is that if this nation returns to a two class societal system then there won’t be anyone that will buy the cheap crap that corporations make in China and then ship back into the US. As I said in an earlier post, even Henry Ford understood that working people need to be paid a living wage or else who would have bought all of his tin lizzies?
“Historically, unions and their members have financially supported and voted for Democrats. As a result, conservative Republicans loathe unions and try to destroy them whenever they can.” (also from the above link)
DAZEE’S hero, Glenn Beck has been ranting about unions of late; hence, DAZEE’s echoing rants. What’s a Becker Head to do, except repeat what they’ve heard from their hero?
Dazzeetrader11 on July 06 at 7:54 p.m.
You seem to despise rich people for no other reason than they’re rich Ms J. true? So spread the wealth around just because rich have it. true?
But no…Unions used to be good. My Daddy was his local president. I know plenty about unions. I’ve even negotiated with them. Trouble is this: in the real world, people get raises because they produce more. These guys produce less and less but ask for more.
Unions have outlived their usefullness.
Repubs don’t hate unions…but they do dislike the unfair ones. Those that ask for more and for nothing…they just ask for more. Over dinner, my Dad was always worried what might happen if the unions would cost too much and thereby lose jobs…and indeed be decertified. That time has come.
We hire people who do good jobs…not unions who take from the rank and file. But what about the Amber deal? She nailed them and didn’t even know it.
They did all stand up and present themselves as wanting..no demanding to sort and deliver and tranport junk…just so they coul dhave jobs…..Fire em all. Hire the people but leave the thugs behind.
I’m talking common sense. Nothing involving hate ..nothing against working people. Fed Ex or UPS, etc would do the job much cheaper and more effectively. And remember it’ll NEVER be unions who make or give decent jobs….it’ll always be the business sector or the government who (if you hadn’t noticed) has been giving 90% of the jobs…to the exclusion of the private sector. This cannot go on unless the goal all along was socialism. Workers of the world unite!!! lol..
He’ll be gone soon and so willl his union cronies. Business might be gone. If you’ve ever lived in Russia, Sweden, etc..you’d soon realise where this program is going. I met with a banker today over coffee.
His contention is that even if Obama and his friends were gone tomorrow…there would still be a huge problem. One wherein people who never have signed the front side of a paycheck have the power to ask for money and don’t want to work for it.
It’s a cultural shift. Most…certainly not all…were raised with a work ethic. You work, you get a wage…if you don’t like the wage, you get another job. Now, he contends….people don’t aspire….just live…they want handouts they don’t work for. He also feels the sytemis slowly crashing…and this crash has been accelerated by Obama and his group. He then said what was really on his mind…America we know and love doesn’t work anymore. Doomed from within.
When Americans ask for things…things they don’t work for, the system’s done. History shows the new system eventually slows so badly that it become ineffective and has to be erased. The new system is the old one that worked. So be it.
Dazzeetrader11 on July 06 at 8:43 p.m.
lol..I just reread your post MsJ…who’s Glen Beck? Never read him. I read…you must not.
Dazzeetrader11 on July 06 at 8:44 p.m.
lol..I just reread your post MsJ…who’s Glen Beck? Never read him. I read…you must not. I honestly don’t know anything about him.
DonJulio on July 06 at 11:19 p.m.
Daisy….you still ranting about unions? You seem to think unions are the downfall of the country. Why won’t you address my earlier comments about government military spending? Would you propose a decrease in the federal military budget? Or, would you propose an INCREASE in military spending by deploying troops to the border?
DonJulio on July 07 at 6:40 a.m.
Daisy….since you sited the Washington Post as a source…you should check out this article…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/24/AR2010012402764.html
Only 1/3 of federal employees are even covered under a union contract (but according to you, unions are THE reason for budget problems). You could cut all union worker compensation by 20% and you’d have accomplished next to nothing in terms of balancing the budget. Please tell me what else you want to cut?
As far as public employee pensions…why don’t you check out this graph?
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/images/UnionizationRatesStateByState.jpg
It appears that unionization rate of employees has ZERO correlation to a state’s pension fund liability level.
misjustice on July 08 at 11:37 p.m.
@Don, DAZEE won’t answer you, she always checks out when she is losing the argument of ideas…
On the off chance that DAZEE picks up this thread again, I’ll answer her rhetorical question about me hating rich people (of which she is not). I don’t. Simple as that. I am a small business owner and count some of the area’s wealthiest people as my clients.
What I do despise are corporations which use the Cayman Islands as an address to avoid paying their share of taxes. And I also have no affinity for corporations that produce shoddy goods which harm people. Also I hate when the mega rich use their positions of power to over ride the common good. And it really gets me angry when corporations use their lawyers to keep justice at bay, think Exxon Mobile and how they kept litigation going for over twenty years, denying monetary damages to the lowly fishermen in Alaska whose livelihood they destroyed; out waiting many “small” people until they died. Or how Enron manipulated the energy market, robbed elderly people of their retirement, and made us all pay more for over priced KWs of energy. How about the peasants in Bhopal, India that died from the release of poison by Union Carbide? Or how about the no-bid contracts which the Cheney administration handed out like penny candy to his corporate cronnies? The examples of robber baron-like activities are endless…and that is what I despise. How our democracy is being transformed into a plutocracy/corpocracy; of the corporations, for the corporations, and by the corporations.
How the middle class is begrudged a living wage and a comfortable retirement because some a hole like DAZEE RAIDER deems them unworthy of such largess. Or how 2 cents more for a stamp is a reason to set out the hue and cry against union workers. Yeah, I hate that…