The revelation Friday by the General Accounting Office (GAO) the U.S. Postal Service overpaid its pension obligations even more then it had originally thought should come as good news to mailers.
At the same time, it raised some broader political and public policy issues that go well beyond making postal rates and paying the pensions of retired postal workers.
Last fall, the federal Office of Personnel Administration found that the USPS overpaid its fund that pays its retirees by some $71 billion. This would leave the USPS with more to spend on itself and forestalling a rate case possibly until 2006 (Direct Newsline, Nov. 5, 2002).
But now, the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, at the behest of Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) and others has found that the USPS overpaid its obligations by about $103.1 billion. The GAO made slightly different assumptions than the OPM, ostensibly leaving the USPS even more money to work with to forestall a new rate case.
The GAO
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