http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2013/02/06/saturday-mail-service-on-the-chopping-block Comments On: UPDATE: Saturday mail service on the chopping block by Max Brantley en-us Copyright 2013 Arkansas Times. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Arkansas Times readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Arkansas Times. robert@arktimes.com (Arkansas Times Webmaster) Sun, 19 May 2013 00:00:01 -0500 Sun, 19 May 2013 10:30:00 -0500 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss The processing plants being closed instead of small offices as allowed by congress are where the delivery speed and the revenue are produced.

The closure of the Fort Smith processing center this week will cause the local mail of zip codes starting with 729 & 728 to go from overnight to probably four of five days. The mail originating going elsewhere in the world will be delayed the same.

The retirement in the post office since 1984 has been the federal thrift savings plan which is the federal copy of a 401k. The post office matches up to a maximum of 5% of employee contributions ( now 3.5% of contributions). There is also social security & a small defined pension funded by 1% of yearly pay.
Posted by Hackett]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 23:17:32 -0600 Arkansas Times
Funny, I thought all liberals were socialists. Now, the "neoliberals" are privatizing rather than governmentizing. What about neoconservatives, are they now the new liberals? Your eternally shifting of categories is annoying. At the very least, post a glossary of what you mean when you plunk down a label. You'd, of course, be changing it every day because you seem to be making it up on the fly. Good work, if you can get it.
Posted by Olphart]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:24:56 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by MarcKyle1964]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:12:02 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by centraltime]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:58:49 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by eLwood]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:49:52 -0600 Arkansas Times
How about only mail avaialability in the county seat, no matter how large the county is? Look at what is happening now-most FedEx and UPS are in the "last mile" program where rural FedEX and UPS packages that aren't paid for next day delivery is dropped off at the post office and delivered to each house by the post office since they DELIVER TO EVERY ADDRESS IN THE COUNTRY, no matter how isolated. Make it private, and everyone in Kansas can drive to the 4 largest cities-its only time and miles!

Here in Faulkner County, only Conway has a post office that pays its own way. Everyone else is a leech off the system. Tell all the Tpers in Mayflower, Greenbrier, Vilonia, etc., that they will have to drive to Conway to the Salem street office to get their mail and see how they like "smaller" government! At least their Social security checks are direct-deposited or put on a bank card!
Posted by couldn't be better]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 14:48:50 -0600 Arkansas Times
I'm sure Pryor knows how much of a difference that would make - I found the figure of $276,000 for the postmaster general's salary. Nothing wrong with talking about whether that is too much, but to pretend that cutting there could solve the USPS budget crisis? Moronic. Unless Pryor is really suggesting pay cuts for all the employees, not just the top ones. In which case he would be blatantly dishonest.

Here's a more realistic suggestion: increase the tax rate on those top salaries.
Posted by TM]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:22:28 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by arkansas panic fan]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 10:56:33 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by centraltime]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 10:25:22 -0600 Arkansas Times
" Although accounting rules require the postal service to calculate future liabilities, including those for projected future employees, the law only requires pre-funding of obligations to actual current and past employees. "
Posted by mudturtle]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 10:16:14 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Eureka Springs]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 09:42:50 -0600 Arkansas Times
http://www.cnbc.com/id/45018432/The_Truth_…
Posted by the outlier]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 09:40:15 -0600 Arkansas Times
It's always good to remind folks about the Postal Clause of the U.S. Constitution when discussing USPS, so thanks for mentioning that.
Posted by radical centrist]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 09:34:35 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by the outlier]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 09:11:19 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by couldn't be better]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 08:48:58 -0600 Arkansas Times "...almost all of the postal service’s losses over the last four years can be traced back to a single, artificial restriction forced onto the Post Office by the Republican-led Congress in 2006.
At the very end of that year, Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA). Under PAEA, USPS was forced to 'prefund its future health care benefit payments to retirees for the next 75 years in an astonishing ten-year time span' — meaning that it had to put aside billions of dollars to pay for the health benefits of employees it hasn’t even hired yet, something 'that no other government or private corporation is required to do.'"
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/09/2…
Posted by Who ate my damn cookies?!!]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 08:46:01 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by 70%er]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 08:44:33 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by 70%er]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 08:41:28 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Dobert]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 08:33:20 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by bopbamboom]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 08:19:56 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by downtowner]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 08:12:48 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by the outlier]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 08:05:25 -0600 Arkansas Times
This won't play in the hinterlands but based on costs, there should be very few post offices in most "red" states because on average, less than 25% of all of the post office installations do enough business to cover their costs. Here in Mt Vernon, we are now down to 3 hours a day but the PO boxes are now available longer. Rural routes still flourish but for most states, they probably don't pay for themselves either.

Note that the Post Office is enumerated as a government function in the Constitution but if FedEx or UPS took over, costs would probably triple (US postage costs are much cheaper than even Canada), still no Saturday delivery for less than $25, and Kansas and most of the rural south wouldn't have service at all. Alaska would be a desert because there, the post office delivers fuel oil in 55 gallon drums and groceries to isolated outposts.

Since one reason for keeping the post office was to deliver SS checks and those are now being doen by debit card or direct deposit, the need for Saturday is suspect. When the Farmers Markers are in operation, we picked up Saturday's mail on Monday morning since the post office closed at 10:30 am and we were still at market. I am a heavy user of the post office because of postage stamp trading I do but I can pick up the mail a day later and most of the junk mail from the GOTP just gets dumped at the post office anyway.
Posted by couldn't be better]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 07:56:39 -0600 Arkansas Times