Postal Office closings painful, necessary

The Gazette Editorial Board

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The juxtaposition was striking.

During a news conference this past week, Gov. Terry Branstad called on the U.S. Postal Service to halt its push to close 3,700 post offices across the country, including 178 in Iowa. The closures are part of a Postal Service cost-cutting offensive.

Later, in the same news conference, Branstad shrugged off criticism from Democrats of his administration's push to close three dozen Iowa Workforce Development services offices across the state, in an effort to trim the state budget.

He accused the Postal Service of lacking a thoughtful closure process. He accused Democrats of “political posturing.”

We think the governor should realize that, when it comes to budget woes, things are tough all over. And that means painful decisions must be made at all levels of government.

We've said previously that Branstad's effort to consolidate employment services in regional offices and make them available online is reasonable. We'll be watching to see how well the change works.

And as hard as it is to watch small towns lose post offices, it's tough to blame the Postal Service for trying to slice expenses. It's losing $23 million each day, and posted a fiscal year 2010 loss of $8.5 billion. That deficit is projected to grow to $20 billion by 2015. Government numbers show that 80 percent of the nation's 32,000 post offices lose money. Meanwhile, more than a third of the Postal Service's retail revenue now comes from 70,000 other access locations such as supermarkets, office supplies and pharmacies.

Branstad and his wife, Chris, own a dozen buildings in Iowa leased out as post offices, including one in Lohrville that is on the closure list. Branstad says that experience has taught him the value of those offices in small communities.

But a five-term governor should also understand the struggle government faces when it makes any significant attempt to rein in spending. It seems every dollar is tied to one or more interests ready to pounce at the mere suggestion of reduction or changing priorities.

That's what Branstad has experienced this year as he's sought to fulfill his campaign promise to reduce the size and scope of state government. The workforce offices are the latest high-profile fight.

Multiply the problems and the political pressures by several trillion, and you've got the federal government. The Postal Service is doing what needs to be done.

The governor, as a fiscal conservative, should empathize rather than criticize.

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