The Affordable Mail Alliance, a coalition of
Postal Service customers, has been reestablished to defeat an expected Postal
Service proposal to raise postage rates by as much as five times the rate
permissible by law. The Postal Service Board of Governors, who must
approve the Postal Service’s request, is set to decide on the matter
imminently.
The law permits the Postal Service to raise postage rates annually,
consistent with the rate of inflation, a standard that should satisfy any well
run organization in today’s economy. But a combination of declining
revenue and increasing costs has the Postal Service poised to inflict on its customers
an “exigent” rate increase designed to subsidize an outdated infrastructure in
need of change. Most private sector companies have already made major
structural and operational changes in recent years in order to survive.
The USPS needs to do the same.
