There is time, and there are ways to save postal centers

Not that we didn’t suspect as much, but it is now clear that the U.S. Postal Service was only going through the motions when it asked for public input into its plans to close post offices and postal service centers throughout the nation.

As it turns out, it didn’t matter whether a handful of people bothered to express an opinion, as was the case in many instances, or that nearly 8,500 took the time to respond, as was the case in the Youngstown area. Small and medium-sized cities are losing their distribution centers, and large cities will gain.

The other losers will be postal customers, who will see their delivery times for first-class mail slip from one day in many cases to two or three days.

There are those who denigrate what the postal service does as “snail mail” and who proclaim it obsolete. That day may come, but it isn’t here yet, at least not for millions of postal customers. Some don’t yet have in-home computer access. Some who do resist doing financial transactions on-line out of security concerns. Some believe that what is likely the best postal system for the money in the world shouldn’t be dismantled before its time.

Congress must act

Clearly, however, it is going to take congressional action — and quick action — to save the 10 postal service centers marked for extinction in Ohio, including Youngstown’s, and others in Pennsylvania, including New Castle’s. Asking Congress to act quickly sounds almost as quaint as a handwritten letter from grandmother, but Congress should take heed.

As in so many things, people — read that voters — don’t often react until they actually see the consequences of congressional action (or inaction). So the backlash won’t be felt until people see their friends and neighbors who work for the postal service lose their jobs or find that the payment they sent for a routine bill was not routinely received by the bank or utility company.

What’s the Congress to do?

Actually Ohio’s Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is among the sponsors of a pretty good roadmap. It’s called the Postal Service Protection Act.

The first thing it would do is correct a piece of fiscal overreaching in the Postal Accountability Enhancement Act of 2006. That bill called for the postal service to prefund its pensions for 75 years, in effect requiring the postal service to set aside money now for employees that haven’t yet been hired — and may never be hired. That alone adds a crippling $5.4 to $5.8 billion to the postal service’s annual operating costs. Remove that artificial requirement and the postal service is a long way toward having the flexibility it needs for an orderly restructuring — one that wouldn’t end in the elimination of as many as 150,000 jobs and reducing service in such a way that endangers the postal service’s mandate to provide efficient and equal service to city and rural residents alike.

New ways to make money

Brown’s proposal would also give the postal service the ability to pursue new revenue streams., by allowing the shipment of beer and wine, for instance, or permitting it to provide notary services, new media services, and the issuance of licenses (drivers licenses, hunting licenses, fishing licenses).

It would also encourage innovation as the nation shifts from hard mail to electronic mail, while preserving standards for the timely delivery of first-class mail.

The Post Office was recognized as a necessity by the Founders and was established in the Constitution. Before it is dismantled in a flurry of budget-cutting and privatization schemes, Congress should give it the same respect and consideration that is expected for any constitutional creation.