Stamps To Cost More Starting Monday

WASHINGTON — Peel it and weep: It'll cost an extra 2 cents to mail a letter starting Monday.

The price of a first-class stamp will climb to 44 cents, though people who planned ahead and stocked up on Forever stamps will still be paying the lower rate.

It's the third year in a row that rates have gone up in May under a new system that allows annual increases as long as they don't exceed the rate of inflation for the year before.

While the increase will bring in added income, the post office continues to struggle financially as more and more lucrative first-class mail is diverted to the Internet, and the recession discourages businesses from sending their usual volume of advertising.

The Postal Service, which does not get a taxpayer subsidy for its operations, lost $2.8 billion last year and is $2.3 billion in the hole just halfway through this year.

Postmaster General John Potter has asked Congress for permission to reduce mail delivery to five days-a-week. The agency is offering early retirement to workers, consolidating excess capacity in mail processing and transportation networks, realigning carrier routes, halting construction of new facilities, freezing officer and executive salaries at 2008 pay levels, and reducing travel budgets.

Even so, the rate increase is unlikely to cover the losses and the possibility remains that the post office could run out of money before the end of the budget year, Sept. 30.

The post office could have cited extraordinary circumstances and asked the independent Postal Regulatory Commission for larger increases, but officials worried that would only result in a greater decline in mail volume and greater losses.

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Potter has sought congressional changes in how the post office prepays for retiree health care, to cut its annual costs by $2 billion.

While the new 44-cent rate covers the first ounce of first-class mail, the price for each additional ounce will remain unchanged at 17-cents.

Postal officials estimate the increase will cost the average household $3 a year.

Other changes taking effect Monday:

_The postcard stamp increases by a penny to 28 cents.

_The first ounce of a large envelope increases 5 cents to 88 cents.

_ The first ounce of a parcel increases 5 cents to $1.22.

_New international postcard and letter prices are, for one ounce, 75 cents to Canada; 79 cents to Mexico; and 98 cents elsewhere.

Most Postal Service shipping services prices were adjusted in January and will not change in May.

___

On the Net:

U.S. Postal Service: http://www.usps.com

Comments

[champislove]

THE POSTAL SERVICE SHOULD GET PAID LIKE THE SERVICE THEY GIVE THE PUBLIC.......NOW HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK YHAT SHOULD BE?

[petef59]

Like the military? Where is Bin Laden????

[petef59]

Like Wall Street, Banking Industry, Insurance, Rating agencies. Why do we need pharmeceautical reps (internet websites could provide doctors with information)? Or any sales reps jobs?

[ProudNeoCon]

The goverment can not compeate with private sector, Federal Express and UPS. It forces to raise prices on the part of the delivery it has monopoly on. Yet people believe it will be able to deliever health care cheaper than private companies... Talk about dreaming...

[petef59]

'compeate'?? Is that the defintion of neo-con efficiency, accuracy and quality? Not to mention you sentence structure quality.

[petef59]

your sentence....

[jerrypl]

Why does not the post office stop Saturday delivery? This would save money.

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

[trotskylives]

Many European countries have privatized mail, also New Zealand. We need to do that at the USPS.

We are borrowing money from China that our kids will have to pay back, to subsidize corporations to send us junk mail. I really can't think of anything dumber.

The USPS is just like GM, it will BK next year and will get an even bigger government bailout. With mail rates dropping you just dont need 800K employees, unless you count junk mail as an important social benefit we all need to pay for via higher taxes.

[petef59]

You pay no tax money for USPS. Ranting 50 year old stereotypes about government workers is intellectually lazy.

[trotskylives]

"In addition and more importantly, the Act reduced the USPS’s unfunded pension obligations by transferring $30 billion of it to the Federal employee pension program."

" This amounted to a bailout: $30 billion worth of relief on the USPS’s pension obligations, plus the USPS was given a $15 billion line of credit with the Federal Fund Bank to draw upon in case of emergency."

Right, no tax money at all, and I have a bridge to sell you....

(PAEA) act of December 2006. The post office will be asking for money in 2010.

[trotskylives]

Is it intellectually lazy if its the truth? In that case gravity is "intellectually lazy" as well.

[robin50]

Does that thumbnail have some kind of fungus going on there? Or what is it? If it is some kind of fashion statement, it's not a very attractive one.

[VictoriaP]

LOL, agreed. A postal employee would have been more appropriate.

[QueenVictoria]

Fixed incomes are not just for the elderly people in the world anymore. We are all in the same boat.
Wiped out and on our own. I remember reading Queen Elizabeth still has a budget. She is not able to use all of the United Kingdom's money at her discretion.

[Gasparilla]

United Parcel increases it's rates every year. Last November it was a 6 percent increase, along with Fedex.
http://www.dividend.com/blog/?p=3553

[petef59]

And in rural areas (not 5 miles outside a metropolis), real rural areas, Fed Ex and UPS hand off their high-priority items. Even in metro areas, there are programs ('last mile') where they bring some bulk-items for delivery by mail carriers. The Postal Service delivers more items in a week than all the other services do in a year.
People may not like the junk mail, but it is a proven inexpensve advertising form: coverage targeted to all homes in an area (you can't guarantee everyone will look at the same internet ad). Even, when tossed out the customer gets a second to see the cover. Also, the catalog industry targets people based on past purchases and ordering frequency. Any mail carrier knows that-the people that shop catalogs, get parcels and more catalogs. They have made that choice, which happens to save gas and time. So, there are some environmental and personal efficiencies for many people.

[VictoriaP]

I would welcome the option to pay a small fee for opting out of junk mail from the post office.

[tomasedison]

A) stop delivery of bulk flyers and advertisements

B) charge 1st class postage rates for ALL junk mail

ps. I toss away about 2-3 lbs of catalogues every week in spite of calling tp cancel them

[susan20515]

The only purpose of the PO is to rip off old people who live on fixed income.

[petef59]

Please.Get real. Most pharmacies/health insurance plans use USPS to deliver medications. But I suppose, on a fixed income, it would be cheaper to drive themselves to a pharmacy,stand in line,etc.

[ywcachieve]

datgummit

[ButteJbyrd]

We need a national do-not-mail program, like do-not-call. The Post Office grows ever larger to serve as a subsidized distribution system for catalogs and other junk mail that is outdated in the age of the internet and cannot be justified in terms of energy or the environment.
By the way, your free speech rights stop at my front door.

[VivaZapata]

excellent point

[DumbDad]

Indeed. Exploitation by any other word. What ever happened to the Netflix problem, where the Postal Service was getting clobbered by all the rental DVD's in the mail?

[dollbaby]

Ummmm....there are some, mainly oder folks and the poor that do not have internet access. Just thought I'd point that out.

[petef59]

Employees numbers are down. Every year more addresses are added (you know, all the new condos & suburbs where the houses are spaced 1 or 2 to a city block.)

[Eris23Skidoo]

Dang it. I've been getting forever stamps since the last rate increase. Just bought a new book of stamps the other day and the clerk didn't hand me forever stamps but I didn't worry about it. Just my luck.

[dkliman]

This is one of those cases where a bit of good old investigative reporting would help.

here's a data point:

Sending packages to brazil during the bush years went up from about $16 to over $100 for my typical care package. why? under bush, the usps sold off its fleet of cargo ships to a private contractor and now pays them a markup to ship via those ships. Was that story covered? maybe on page C41, in one of those tiny little articles on the bottom, in the fifth paragraph, as an aside, maybe not at all. I found out when the postal clerk told me the fleet had been sold off.

I bet if we turn over some rocks, we'll see that the most efficient, lucrative parts of the postal system have been "privatized," externalizing the profit to a whole phalanx of crony contractors who are benefiting and causing the post office for the first time in its history, to be losing money.

[rucognizant]

BINGO! That's IT! My Postmaster told me that the Po's rainy day fund had been appropriated for military use. Just like the other 1/2 of my social security check....................and; what else?

[DougNTexas]

Bush privatized everything in Texas when he was Gov. Texas Unemployment is a mess and a joke. Other State programs are ridiculous. Programs like Workers Comp care little about hurt workers.The private companies make a ton of money, when the needful get screwed all the way down the line. But hey, those donations from the private companies come in helpful during the campaigns in Texas for the Rethug party.

[petef59]

Fed Ex got a contract a few years back,in place of formerly used passenger airline cargo-holds, to carry mail. Something like $7 billion for a 5 year contract. Fed Ex Chairman Fred Smith is on the Postal Board of Governors (appointed by GW Bush).
Every year since the early 1980's, when the Postal Service has been profitable, Congress puts us off-budget for a day, takes the profit, then puts us back off-budget. $800 million here, $700 million there, who cares?
Since Bush made the Postal Reform Act of 2006 we are the only industry that has to pre-fund retiree healthcare: around $5 biilion a yr/ over 10 yrs. I've been a carrier for 25 yrs, all walking and frankly, I wish people were as critical of Wall Street, Banking, Insurance employees as they have been all of my career. Postal management use the lazy government employee stereotype to bully us in many ways. How about so much forced overtime 6 days a wk over 6-7 years, that I had to drop college classes multiple times. Or when I get an injury, they immediately assume I'm making it up, even 'though I'm making doctor appointments on my day off , which at the time was about 1 day every 4 or five weeks. But, I'm not a hardworking American working a physical job and getting 3 classes short of a college education, I'm just the stereotype many want to hold in their government-bashing minds.

[fleaba]

OUr letter carrier, Lois, Is fantastic. All of you folks who use the internet to pay bills, well that's great, but there are many who cannot afford the internet and don't have a bank card. In fact, once everyone starts to go to online billpay, then they will start charging you. Just wait.

[Jond0]

Yep -- my mortgage company wanted $11 for the 'privilege' of paying online.

[wietog]

Same here. Total BS. The charge should be for snailmail - some poor sap has to sit there and open up all the little envelopes, check the messy handwriting and verify the account numbers. Ridiculous!