Postal Officials Edge Towards Another Rate Increase

The Postal Service took a step Tuesday toward another price increase when its governing board unanimously rejected the rates that took effect in February, sending the matter back to the independent Postal Rate Commission.

The current postage rates will remain in effect, however, until a final decision is made.

The current rate includes a 29-cent first-class stamp instead of the 30-cent version postal officials requested. The commission also made several other changes in the complex sets of rates requested by the Postal Service.

In formally rejecting the commission’s rates and asking for a reconsideration, the postal governors set the stage to eventually make the final decision on their own. There is no formal time frame for the commission to reconsider the rates.

“We took this action because the revenue that would be produced . . . from the current rates would not reach the levels forecast by the commission and hence not be enough to cover our expenses,” said Norma Pace, chairman of the postal board of governors.

Legally, the governors can overrule the rate commission, but only if they first ask it to reconsider and then vote unanimously to overrule.

The postal governors have overruled the rate commission once before, in 1981. That year the post office asked for an increase from 15 cents to 20 cents, but the rate commission only approved an 18-cent rate. The 18-cent stamp took effect in March, and the governors asked for a reconsideration. Later they voted to overrule the rate commission and institute the 20-cent rate in November.