Postal Service Seen Likely to Ask Price Hike for First-Class Stamp

The Postal Service board of governors is likely Monday to propose an increase of 3 or 4 cents in the price of a first-class stamp, with the rates to become effective early in 1995, sources said Wednesday.

If approved by the independent Postal Rate Commission, which has up to 10 months to make a decision, the hike would be the first since February, 1991, when the first-class stamp rose from 25 cents to the current 29 cents.

The board of governors also will call for price increases in all other categories of mail, but precise rates are uncertain.

The powerful Mailers Council--which includes newspaper and magazine publishers, greeting card firms, banks, utilities and direct marketers--has called for a 10.3% increase for all classes of mail. That proposal would translate into a 3-cent hike for first-class stamps.

The Postal Service had a deficit of $1.7 billion last year and officials have decided that they must seek additional revenues.

Rate hikes normally are spaced three years apart but Postmaster General Marvin Runyon’s aggressive cost-cutting program, which included early retirement for 48,000 postal workers, has enabled the system to operate for an additional year without raising prices. Runyon saved the system $1.8 billion last year, according to Postal Service estimates.