SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — Comptroller Susana Mendoza has joined the ranks of Illinois lawmakers concerned with modernization strategies at the United States Postal Service.
Mendoza announced that she is sending a letter to U.S. Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy citing serious concerns about their modernization strategy to downsize Springfield’s Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC).
This process would downgrade the current facility into a Local Processing Center (LPC). Mendoza is concerned about the delay that would be caused by Springfield mail being processed in St. Louis.
“My office sends out about 11,000 checks a day to home health care workers, childcare providers and other state providers and vendors,” says Comptroller Mendoza. “Even a one-day delay could cause serious hardship for these providers and businesses.”
In the letter to the Postmaster, Mendoza cautioned against moving forward without a thorough impact analysis guaranteeing no performance delays would result from the network processing shift.
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“I want assurances that check recipients will receive their payments as expected and believe more analysis should be done to prevent any delays,” continued Mendoza. “While I support increased efficiency, data needs to show that moving Illinois mail out of state will improve delivery times.”
Mendoza also encourages further study of how current USPS jobs would be impacted in Springfield and other planned consolidation locations like Champaign.
Comptroller Mendoza’s letter comes one week after Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski filed H.R. 8040, which would prevent the consolidation of P&DCs in areas that are underperforming in meeting delivery goals.
Other members of the Illinois Congressional delegation, including U.S. Senator Durbin, U.S. Senator Duckworth, Congressman Quigley, Congressman Sorensen, and Congresswoman Budzinski, have signed a letter citing a study done by the USPS Inspector General after a similar plan was enacted in Virginia. The analysis found that the change contributed to a decrease in service performance in the Richmond region.
The Springfield City Council and several area residents have also expressed concerns about the plan.
“I hope to learn more about the proposal, but in the meantime, I encourage state employees, service providers and other eligible state vendors to sign up to have their payments electronically deposited,” said Comptroller Mendoza.
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