I sent this letter to Rep. Scott and our senators and ask you if you value our rural Post Offices and mail delivery to contact their offices.

Rep. Scott & Senators Saxby and Chambliss, I hear you talk all the time about those BURDEN- SOME regulations the government imposes on businesses. Yet, the Post Office which was authorized in our Constitution, was stuck with a partisan attack in 2006 by requiring it to fund 75 years of pensions/healthcare in a 10- year period.

There is NO other business or government agency required to do this, as it would put them out of business.

In fact, pension studies showed if the balance today in the Post Office pension fund simply earned a 3 percent return and was left to grow the Post Office would never have to put another dime into the pension fund.

I expect you to fight for our RURAL Post offices as in GA District 8 we NEED them. Remove this REGULATION for the Post Office. I am also including some reasons why the Post Office is a success.

The United States Postal Service:

1. Receives no taxpayer dollars

2. Is funded by the products and services it sells

3. Working with its unions, has already reduced its workforce by 110,000 employees, improved efficiency and introduced new products and services

4. Handles more than 40 percent of the world’s mail more efficiently and at lower cost than other services

5. Despite the growth of the digital world, continues to support a $1 trillion

mailing industry with more than 8 million jobs

6. Has a workforce that is made up of 40 percent women, 40 percent minorities, and 22 percent veterans, many disabled

There is a crisis, but it is not because the Postal Service is inefficient and its workers overpaid. It is because the Postal Service:

7. Is the only federal agency or private company required to pre-fund retiree health benefits for 75 years

8. Is therefore required to pay $5.5 billion annually to the Treasury, an amount not required of any other agency or company.

Without these unique requirements, it would have earned a surplus of over $600 million during the last four years. In addition, the USPS:

9. Has overpaid its obligations to the Civil Service Retirement System by an estimated $50 billion (and this money should be returned)

10. Has over funded the Federal Employees Retirement System by approximately $6.9 billion (and would be profitable if these funds were returned).

Rep./Senators, put your money where your mouth is and fix this issue without an attack on workers. We can now mail a first class letter for 46 cents and I dare you to compare that at FedEx or UPS.

I also think real reforms are needed at the Post Office. For example, by law the Post Office can’t notarize something (for a fee), can’t make you copies of documents (for a fee), can’t wrap packages for you (for a fee), etc. These are things, along with many more common-sense regulation changes, that would make the Post Office more user-friendly and bring in more revenue.

Garry Gentry

Tifton