Legislation prohibiting the U.S. Postal Service from assigning postal ZIP codes to adjacent communities in different states has been introduced by Senator Michael Enzi (R-WY).
Enzi, who introduced the measure late last month, said it was designed to get Alta, WY, a small town on the Wyoming-Idaho border its own ZIP code. The town currently shares its postal ZIPcode with nearby Driggs, ID.
“This bill will not be onerous for the USPS to implement,” he said. The USPS would be required to “identify those communicates whose mail service crosses state boundaries and to assign them the necessary identification number that they need to provide the rest of the world a clear and concise description of where they live and who they are.”
Alta, WY, is just one of a number of small communities, mostly in the western U.S, that gets its mail through a post office in an adjoining state.
The measure would also clear up confusion over the payment and collection of use taxes while keeping catalogers, other direct marketers and their customers from avoiding payment of those taxes through the use of out-of-state postal facilities, he said.
The USPS created “a lot of confusion” in Alta by requiring residents to use the Idaho town’s post office when doing business with catalogers and other direct mail companies, he said.
Brushing aside USPS claims that ZIP codes “are not used to identify specific locations,” Enzi noted that they are used as “important location codes” by various businesses and industries.
Noting that often times sales and use taxes are “programmed” by ZIP code, as are car, life and homeowners insurance policies, he added that federal and state tax officials “use ZIP codes as an indicator of when and where to pay taxes.”
