newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERESYNEWSROOM.COM

Reportedly 42 percent of first-class mail gets to your house the next day, but after the Post Office budget cuts go into effect next spring, around half of first-class mail will arrive in two days and most of the rest will arrive in three days.

That’s just the beginning of the changes coming from the United States Postal Service in 2012. The Street reported that the Post Office has announced that first class stamp prices will rise to 45 cents on January 22. That will mark their first price hike since May 2009.

The Postal Service expects to close around 252 of its mail processing facilities. They are looking to cut $20 billion in costs by 2015.

According to the New York Times, postal officials said there would be no official announcememts of post office closings before January. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe is asking Congress to approve five-day-a-week delivery and to remove the post office’s obligation to save around $5.5 billion a year for 10 years for retiree health care, saying the two moves can save the USPS $8.5 billion a year.

NJ.com reports that New Jersey mail processing facilities being looked at for closure are in Bellmawr, Eatontown, Edison, Kearny, Pleasantville and Teterboro.

The Atlantic suggests that the post office has been badly hurt by the Internet, Congress, and its own labor costs. They said total mail volume has fallen about 20 percent over the past five years, and first-class mail has dropped 25 percent over the past 10 years.

Also, salaries and benefits comprise 80 percent of the Post Office's expenses. And the Postal Service doesn’t receive taxpayer funds, yet is managed by Congress. And the 2006 law passed by Congress requiring the USPS to pay the annual $5.5 billion for future pensions has hurt them badly.

Donahue said since 2006, the Postal Service has closed 186 facilities, removed over 1,500 pieces of mail processing equipment, decreased employees by over 110,000 through attrition and cut costs by $12 billion.