From Vicky Flannery, South Wayne
As an employee of the USPS, I would like to relate to you some facts about the postal service.
As of 1971, the USPS has not taken a dime of taxpayer money. The cost of postage has paid our bills. In 2006, a bill was passed and beginning in 2007, it required the USPS to massively prefund the cost of retiree health benefits over the next 75 years, in 10 years time. The cost covers not only current employees, but employees who have yet to be hired, and it's on top of the cost for health benefits for current employees. No other government agency or company is required to prefund future retiree health benefits.
No rational company would choose to make prefunding future retiree health benefits their highest priority in today's economy, and no company would use all their borrowing capacity to do so, but that's what the USPS is forced to do. The USPS has successfully adapted to the recession, cutting more than 100,000 jobs, but it can't absorb the heavy cost of funding retiree health care.
As a matter of fairness, the USPS should be allowed to fund retiree health benefits on a pay-as-you go basis, just as most companies do. If the USPS is required to prefund, then they should be held to the same standards as private companies that prefund, which is about 30 percent. The USPS is required to prefund at 48 percent.
Finally, if the USPS did not have to prefund their health care, they would have had $611 million in surplus, completely weathering this weak economy.
As an employee of the USPS, I would like to relate to you some facts about the postal service.
As of 1971, the USPS has not taken a dime of taxpayer money. The cost of postage has paid our bills. In 2006, a bill was passed and beginning in 2007, it required the USPS to massively prefund the cost of retiree health benefits over the next 75 years, in 10 years time. The cost covers not only current employees, but employees who have yet to be hired, and it's on top of the cost for health benefits for current employees. No other government agency or company is required to prefund future retiree health benefits.
No rational company would choose to make prefunding future retiree health benefits their highest priority in today's economy, and no company would use all their borrowing capacity to do so, but that's what the USPS is forced to do. The USPS has successfully adapted to the recession, cutting more than 100,000 jobs, but it can't absorb the heavy cost of funding retiree health care.
As a matter of fairness, the USPS should be allowed to fund retiree health benefits on a pay-as-you go basis, just as most companies do. If the USPS is required to prefund, then they should be held to the same standards as private companies that prefund, which is about 30 percent. The USPS is required to prefund at 48 percent.
Finally, if the USPS did not have to prefund their health care, they would have had $611 million in surplus, completely weathering this weak economy.
