| A
Stamp of Disapproval |
| The cost of sending a first-class letter through the U.S.
Postal Service went up 3 cents this week, an increase of more
than 8.8 percent. You'll now pay 37 cents instead of 34 cents
to pay your bills, send a Mother's Day card, or to wish your
sweetheart Happy Valentine's Day. |
| E-mail greeting cards are free, but they just aren't the
same. |
| According to postal officials, the increase was due to a
dramatic drop in the amount of first-class mail sent over
the past couple of years because of the popularity of e-mail,
low-cost, long-distance phone service, fax machines and the
advent of internet bill paying. |
| Also, competition from UPS and FedEx has cut into the USPS's
parcel post service. And the anthrax situation this year cost
the USPS millions, maybe even billions, in clean up, investigation,
medical claims and lost business. |
| The increase in postal rates has many people up in arms,
but we still pay among the lowest postal rates in the world,
and if we look at the history of postal rates in the U.S.,
37 cents for a letter is still cheaper than some rates in
the late 1700s and early 1800s. |
| For instance, in 1792, a letter sent not more than 30 miles
cost 6 cents per sheet, but that rate increased to 25 cents
for a single-sheet letter sent more than 450 miles. Beginning
Feb. 1, 1815, the rate for letters sent less than 40 miles
was 12 cents per sheet, and that increased to 37-1/2 cents
per sheet for letters sent more than 400 miles. |
| Notice that the price of postage was per sheet, or per page,
and was based on distance. Almost all letters were paid by
the receiver, although the sender could prepay the postage
if desired. |
| Rates were different for prepaid or not prepaid letters
in the midÁ 1800s, with the prepaid letters being charged
about half of the rate for a non-prepaid letter. It wasn't
until Jan. 1, 1856, that prepayment of postage became mandatory. |
| It should be noted here that at that time in postal history
there were no stamps, but postmasters determined the cost
and wrote on the outside of the letter the total amount of
postage due. The first stamps didn't appear until 1847. Since
Benjamin Franklin was the first postmaster general, his likeness
appeared on the first stamp, which cost 5 cents. George Washington's
portrait appeared on the 10-cent stamp in 1847. |
| On April 1, 1855, the rate for a half-ounce letter traveling
under 3,000 miles had dropped to 3 cents per half ounce, and
a letter going more than 3,000 miles (coast to coast) was
10 cents per half ounce. |
| The cost of sending a first-class letter dropped to a low
of 1-cent in the early 1900s, increased to 3 cents during
the middle part of the century, and now stands at 37 cents. |
| It seems we have gone backwards. But just think of the cost
of a letter in 1815, less than 200 years ago, when a three-page
letter sent from Washington to Georgia would have cost somewhere
more than $1.12. |
| And that is in 1815 dollars. It makes 37 cents sound like
a great bargain. |
| First-class rates aren't the only rates increasing. Standard
mail, like the rates paid by The Observer Newspapers to mail
more than 75,000 newspapers every week to homes in Herndon,
Reston and Eastern Loudoun County, also is increasing about
8 percent, or an additional $40,000 per year, and that doesn't
even count office mail, of which we use a great deal. |
| We just hope the service from the USPS improves 8 percent.
Now that would be a bargain. |
| |
| The
Economics of the Toll Road |
| Here are some recently released facts about our favorite
highway, The Omer L. Hirst-Adelard L. Brault Expressway, better
known as the Dulles Toll Road. |
| The Dulles Toll Road is in its 18th year of operation. It
was completed and opened in October 1984 and was built at
a cost of $55.3 million. In its first full year of operation,
1985, $10.3 million in tolls was collected, and in 2001, $38.4
million in tolls was collected. |
| Since its opening, $381,864,576 has been collected in tolls
and another $36,390,269 has been earned from miscellaneous
and interest income. That's a total of $418,254,845¤ a lot
of quarters. |
| These facts were provided by Jack Herrity and Associates
in Fairfax. Herrity, as many of you will remember, is a former
chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. He's
considering making another run at the position in the next
election. |
| Added to the original toll road cost of $55.3 million is
the widening project which added a third lane and the seldom
used (if ever) Route 7 flyover. That cost toll road users
another $69.2 million. The second improvement project was
the fourth lane and Wiehle Avenue interchange improvements
which cost $71 million. |
| That brings the total cost of the Dulles Toll Road, according
to the figures provided by Jack Herrity and Associates, to
$195,482,083. |
| Total operation and maintenance costs since 1984 comes to
$122 million, and debt service costs during the same period
are $135.6 million. |
| In 2001, $41,965,841 in revenue was generated from the Dulles
Toll Road, while maintenance and debt service was $25,091,823.
That means the toll road made a profit of $16,874,018 in 2001.
That's also a lot of quarters. |
| As of June 1, 2002, according to the report, about $66.7
million in bonds was still outstanding. Adding interest to
that amount, about $105.7 is still owed. As of June 3, 2001,
there was a cash balance in all Dulles Toll Road accounts
of $57.3 million. |
| The big question is: When will the tolls be dropped, the
majority of which are paid by Herndon, Reston and Eastern
Loudoun motorists? (Airport traffic uses the non-toll Access
Highway.) |
| According to the report, "A portion of the net surplus toll
revenues of the Dulles Toll Road is dedicated for implementation
of rail in the Dulles Corridor." |
| I read that to mean that as long as the Virginia Department
of Transportation has a cash-cow like the Dulles Toll Road,
the tolls will never be dropped. |
| After all, isn't it nice that commuters from Herndon, Reston
and Loudoun get to pay for rail transportation from which
the entire region, including large developers, will benefit? |
| And that's Our Town this week. |
