Postal Rate Hike Inevitable p.

By: Debra Gersh Hernandez

Mailers Council says it will support a maximum increase
of 10.3% across the board to cover a two-year period sp.

THE MAILERS COUNCIL, a coalition of companies and trade associations, said it will support a maximum 10.3% across-the-board increase in postal rates to cover the U.S. Postal Service's needs for the next two years.
Noting that a rate increase is inevitable, Mailers Council managing director Arthur Sackler said, "The alternative is a conventional rate case for a higher amount of money and a longer period of time, accompanied by huge litigation costs. Most of this can be saved with the 10.3% across-the-board approach."
The mailers are willing to give the Postal Service this short-term infusion of cash while the agency explores the long-term goal of improving service, not only in automation but also cost efficiency, Sackler said.
The 10.3% figure is based on statements by Postmaster General Marvin Runyon, who said that amount would give the service the funds it needs, Gene Del Polito, executive director of the Advertising Mail Marketing Association, explained during a Washington press conference announcing the council's position.
Council members also at the briefing were Robert Brinkmann, vice president/state, postal and regulatory affairs, Newspaper Association of America; Myron Meche, legislative repre- sentative, National Retail Federation; Michael Cavanagh, executive director, National Postal Policy Council; George Gross, executive vice president/government affairs, Magazine Publishers of America; Marianne McDermott, executive vice president, Greeting Card Association; Richard Barton, senior vice president, Direct Marketing Association; Diane Rennert, congressional liaison, Association of American Publishers; and Irving Warden, associate general counsel, American Bankers Association.
"Let's be clear," Sackler said. "Neither the Mailers Council nor any of the organizations represented here today wants a rate increase. The last thing American business needs is to pay out more money for the same services.
"But a rate increase is inevitable, and the service should get some credit for stretching the interval between rate increases to four years," he said.
Those at the meeting were clear, however, that they would agree only to a maximum increase of 10.3% and only if it is applied across all rate categories. If those conditions are not met, a full rate case will be necessary.
In a letter to Postal Service Board of Governors chairman J. Sam Winters, Sackler pointed out, "This would be the first time since reorganization, if not in postal history, that mailers agreed to accept a general postal rate increase without contest."
If the proposal, which would raise the cost of a first-class stamp to 32?, is accepted promptly, it still would be about a year before the increase goes into effect. In addition, Barton noted, after the rate case, the Postal Service still is looking at a reclassification case.
"By clearing the boards with this immediate infusion of cash, we have two years to work out how to classify mail," he explained.
"With this 10.3% solution, everyone wins," Sackler said. "The Postal Service gets some financial breathing room as it contemplates and acts upon its future. Consumers get a 3? stamp increase instead of 4? or 5?. Business mailers get proportionately the same rate increases. And both consumers and business mailers get a postal system primed to address its future and the best way to serve us all."