a018  0005  29 Mar 77
PM-Mail, Bjt, 480
By JEFFREY MILLS
Associated Press Writer
    WASHINGTON (AP) - Your mail won't be delivered on Saturday, more of
your tax money will go toward subsidizing the Postal Service and you
will have to pay 22 cents for every first-class letter you mail.
    This is the grim picture of the mail service in 1985 as drawn by a
federal commission studying the future of the financially troubled
Postal Service, sources said Monday.
    The commission's recommendations to Congress are due by April 18,
but participants said the panel has voted to recommend:
    - Ending Saturday mail delivery to save $400 million per year.
    - Increasing taxpayer subsidies by removing a ceiling imposed at the
time the Postal Service was reorganized from the old Post Office
Department in 1971.
    The chances of Congress approving the recommendations appear slim.
    But without these measures, the first-class rate would have to be
increased to 28 cents by 1985 to cover the sharply rising cost of
delivering the mail, sources said the commission determined.
    Under the commission recommendations, the first-class rate would be
held to ''only'' 22 cents per letter by 1985, the sources said.
    First-class rates jumped from 10 to 13 cents on Dec. 31, 1975.
    One commission member acknowledged that the recommendations will be
unpopular. ''We decided not to pay attention to what would be
politically popular. We decided to recommend what we felt is needed,''
he said.
    But, he added, ''I don't think Congress is willing to accept
elimination of Saturday delivery.''
    The sources said the commission voted 6-1 in favor of keeping the
present structure of postal regulation, including groups that are
under fire on Capitol Hill, such as the Postal Service board of
governors and the Postal Rate Commission.
    The vote on eliminating Saturday delivery was 5-2 and all seven
commissioners favored increasing the subsidy, the sources said.
    The commission decided not to make a recommendation on whether
money-losing rural post offices should be closed, the sources said.
The Postal Service has talked about closing some of its 30,000 post
offices as an economy move, but there has been heavy opposition from
Congress members representing rural districts.
    The commission also decided to urge the Postal Service to ''get
seriously involved'' with electronic communication, one source said.
The mail agency has been considering electronic message services that
would avoid some of the costs of sorting letters.
    Congress established the commission last year after deciding not to
tackle the thorny problems of the deficit-prone Postal Service during
an election year. The report of the commission is expected to set off
the most intensive congressional debate on the future of the mail
service since the 1971 reorganization in which the service was formed
from the old Post Office Department.
    
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