Editorial: Postal service should carefully weigh rate boost

By: . | Stafford County Sun
Published: July 08, 2010

The Postal Service wants to raise its rates again, in order to bring in more cash.

Postal officials held a briefing earlier this week to talk about details of the amount, according to the Associated Press. The issue will go the independent Postal Regulatory Commission for review.

In March the Postmaster General said that an increase would be necessary.

Now, it costs 44 cents for a first-class rate stamp. That change occurred in May of last year. But the AP says rates for various types of mail will likely go up too.

Officials have also talked about cutting Saturday mail to decrease their costs.

The agency lost $3.8 billion last fiscal year despite cutting 40,000 full-time positions and making other reductions, according to the AP.

By law, the post office doesn’t increase its rate more than the rate of inflation, but can ask do so in special cases.

It seems that every time we turn around, postal prices increase. Although it’s a sign of the times — cuts have had to be made everywhere in all sorts of fields and businesses, and the result in this case is a proposed rate increase — it seems as if the Postal Service is seeking to increase again too easily. Instead, officials should take another look at their budget to see if there is a way to avoid this increase yet again.

Stafford County Sun editorials represent the opinion of the managing editor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on his page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily the Stafford County Sun.