clayton &8212; If you&8217;ve got any bills lying around or are behind on your holiday thank you notes, now would be a good time to get them in the mail.

Because starting Sunday, the postal rates are going up across the board.

First-class stamps will rise two cents to 39 cents, postcard stamps are up one to 24.

Postal customers seem to be taking the rate hike in stride.

&8220;It&8217;s two cents,&8221; Brenda Hamilton said after visiting the Ferriday Post Office. &8220;I think I can live without two cents.&8221;

Clayton Postmaster Beverly Chalmers said that was the reaction of many of her customers &8212; those who knew about it, at least &8212; but not all will look at it that way.

&8220;People on a fixed income give me a hard time, but I can understand it,&8221; she said.

The reason for the increase, the first since 2003, is not as simple as you might think.

Sure, the rise in gas prices has hurt the Postal Service, and Chalmers said every penny gas goes up costs the USPS $8 million per year but the larger reason is an accounting snafu that was discovered a couple of years ago.

&8220;They discovered that the retirement fund was overfunded through an error,&8221; Chalmers said.

That left the fund with a $3.1 billion surplus. This is the sort of accounting problem most companies would like to discover, but it hasn&8217;t worked out that way for the USPS.

In

2003, Congress mandated that the surplus be put into a escrow account, thereby depriving the USPS of money it had earned.

The USPS is a government company, however, its entire operating budget is derived from its own revenues; it receives no tax money.

&8220;We were doing fine without a rate increase, but when you take away $3.1 billion of our money and say you can&8217;t spend it,&8221; Chalmers said.

&8220;We told Congress, if we don&8217;t get access to this money, we will have to increase rates.&8221;

Chalmers isn&8217;t talking out of school either.

The USPS Web site offers the same explanation and the National Association of Postmasters of the United States, of which Chalmers is a member, meets quarterly to keep its members up to date on the political situation in Washington.

In the meantime, people will be paying more at the counter.

The largest increase is for Express Mail packages more than one-half pound but less than two pounds, which jump from $17.85 to $18.80.

Two-cent stamps will be available to make up the difference on stamps already purchased.