Letter: Alter postal finances

What poor misguided souls in Congress thought it was wise to mandate that the cash-strapped Postal Service pre-fund its health care premiums for future retirees by 75 years, at the cost of $5.5 billion per year? ["Mail's stuck in last century," Editorial, Dec. 11]. This unfair mandate requires the Postal Service to pay this within a 10-year period, thereby covering retirees not yet hired.

It concerns me that our government's creative accounting has managed to bilk the Postal Service into overpaying into its retirement fund in excess of $50 billion. Not a bad deal for the government -- not a good deal for the Postal Service.

For its part, the Postal Service has been working very hard to reduce costs. One of the major changes is machines that sort mail directly to the routes in delivery-order. Now it's time for the government to do its part.

The answer is almost too simple: Stop the prefunding now, and only prefund one year at a time, saving more than $5 billion a year. Give back the excess $50-billion surplus in the retirement fund. Some things are worth saving.

Robert E. Severin, Rockville Centre

Editor's note: The writer is a member of the National Association of Letter Carriers.