First-Class Postage Stamp Likely to Cost 32 Cents Soon : Mail: U.S. Postal Service is expected to ratify proposal. It would cost local consumers about $525,000 next year.

The price of a first-class postage stamp will probably rise to 32 cents next month, adding more than $500,000 to the cost of mailing cards, letters, advertising materials and packages in Orange County next year, mailing industry experts said Wednesday.

The U.S. Postal Service is gearing up for a last-minute post-holiday rush as businesses scramble to do as much mailing as possible before the price increase, said Terri Bouffiou, spokeswoman for the Santa Ana postal district, the central clearinghouse for most of Orange County.

The final decision on the rate hike, approved Wednesday by the independent Postal Rate Commission in Washington, will be made next week by the U.S. Postal Service board of governors. It is expected to ratify the proposal and determine when the new rate will take effect.

The 3-cent increase from 29 cents, the rate in effect since 1991, means the average U.S. household will spend an additional $7.20 to $9 a year for stamps, according to the Postal Service.

The commission accepted the Postal Service request for a 32-cent first-class stamp but decided to shift $450 million in proposed additional revenue from consumers and small businesses to major mailers of advertising and newspaper and magazine publishers.

The Postal Service’s biggest customers are businesses such as accounting and law firms, department stores and insurance companies, which have generally supported the proposed price increase because it is being accompanied by a promise to hold the new rate steady for three or four years, said Joseph Wirth, general manager of Norco Cos. in Anaheim.

“Even though the price goes up, this enables them to plan ahead with some degree of accuracy for several years, and that’s valuable,” said Wirth, whose company specializes in presorting first-class mail for businesses.

He said a rate increase typically helps his business because Norco serves small companies and can use the discounts that the Postal Service offers for presorted mail to woo new customers who had not previously considered presorting worth paying for.

The Postal Service asked for a 21-cent postcard rate, but the commission cut it to 20 cents, which represents a penny increase.

For heavier letters, such as wedding invitations and large greeting cards, the Postal Service wanted a 25-cent rate for the second ounce. But the commission voted to maintain the current rate of 23 cents.

Priority mail now costs $2.90 to ship two pounds or less. The requested rate was $3.20, and the commission recommended $3. Express mail, now $9.95 for an eight-ounce letter, had a requested rate of $10.95, which the commission trimmed to $10.75.

“All of these rates are lower than the Postal Service recommended, and all benefit individual mailers,” Edward J. Gleiman, chairman of the Postal Rate Commission, said at a news conference in Washington.

The rate increase endorsed by the commission would produce $4.7 billion in new revenue next year, giving the Postal Service a budget of nearly $55 billion. In Orange County, the higher rates would cost consumers about $525,000 next year, mailing industry experts said.

Wirth of Norco Cos. said that the discounts offered for presorted mail will probably be in the same range as those offered now: 4.2 cents apiece for presorted first-class mail and as much as 7.5 cents apiece for sorted bulk mail that is delivered by the business--or an agent like Norco--to specially designated post offices.

Elodia Camalich, a sales representative for Master-Sort Presort & Mailing Service in Santa Ana, agreed that the effect of Wednesday’s proposal on businesses “really depends on the discounts.”

If the new rates take effect in early January, that would increase the cost to employers of mailing out workers’ W-2 forms. It also would boost the cost of “inventory sale” advertising typically sent out at the first of the year.

“If there is an early implementation,” Bouffiou said, “a lot of businesses will rush to move up whatever first- and third-class mail that can be moved up, and the postal system will feel it.”

The price of a stamp has been 29 cents for four years--the longest period without an increase since the Postal Service became a semi-independent agency in the early 1970s. But the agency was $1.3 billion in the red for its latest fiscal year and is seeking additional revenue to help balance its books.