Iowa, Illinois governors seek alternatives to post office closings

Govs. Terry Branstad of Iowa and Pat Quinn of Illinois are urging U.S. Postal Service officials to consider options other than closing rural post offices as a way to overcome financial challenges, while minimizing the negative impact to citizens and businesses in small towns already struggling through a fragile economic recovery.

Branstad, a Republican, and Quinn, a Democrat, urged U.S. Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe to explore cost-reduction avenues, such as enabling postmasters to manage multiple locations, reducing service hours or permitting the Postal Service to sell non-postal products, rather than simply closing and consolidating thousands of post offices throughout the country – action they say hit their states disproportionately hard.

Quinn and Branstad – who, with his wife, Chris, owns buildings that house 12 post offices, including one on the list for possible closure -- called on the U.S. Postal Service to halt its push to close 3,700 post offices across the country, including 178 in Iowa, as part of the agency's cost-cutting offensive.

Postal officials noted the service is losing $23 million each day, and posted a fiscal 2010 loss of $8.5 billion. That deficit is projected to grow to $20 billion by 2015.

Government numbers also 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.

In their joint letter released Thursday, Branstad and Quinn wrote that they agree that it is essential for the Postal Service to examine its operational structure to ensure it is meeting the needs of customers in a cost-effective manner.

“However, we are concerned about the focus on closures of Post Office locations and processing centers,” they wrote. “Alarmingly, the effort seems to be disproportionately targeted to facilities in Iowa and Illinois. We understand there will have to be some closings nationwide, but those closures should be balanced and equally distributed across states and regions. No state or postal district should bear an undue burden.”

Quinn and Branstad expressed concern over a lack of communication, transparency and information sharing by the Postal Service, which they said makes it unclear why certain towns are targeted over others and what criteria was used to select offices for closure. They also said attempts by community officials to meet with postal representatives to discuss alternatives often have been overlooked and ignored.

“As governors, we have the responsibility to ensure our small towns' and rural communities' voices are heard,” they wrote.

To that end, Quinn and Branstad requested a meeting with Donahoe and the postmasters of districts within Illinois and Iowa in hopes of forging a partnership between states and the Postal Service to address the various challenges they face. “We also encourage you to place a temporary moratorium on future Post Office closures within our states until we have the opportunity to meet,” they added.

Post Offices in rural America provide more than retail services to their local communities. For many, local Post Offices serve as economic and social hubs, the governors stated in their joint letter. As such, rural towns deserve to have the opportunity to provide input before any final decisions regarding Post Office closures or relocations are reached and to be assured that they will not experience downgrades in mail service.

“Unfortunately, the Postal Service has not given communities a meaningful opportunity to discuss alternatives to closure and has ignored the right of rural communities to be heard,” they added. “We believe the Postal Service must provide for meaningful public input and take into consideration whether the community served by the Post Office is opposed to the decision and whether a closure will bring about degradations in mail service that will adversely affect small town America.”

Separately, Branstad also penned a letter to Donahoe with Donny Hobbs -- mayor of the town of Lohrville, the Calhoun County town where Branstad is lessor of the local post office -- requesting a meeting with senior USPS officials and encouraging the creation of a commission to reconsider closure recommendations.