28 JUNE 2001 Hello all... Not that I am sticking up for the government, but the volumn of mail that they must get is a factor...then these applications are on microfilm, so there is the cost of several microfilm readers, plus the the toner for the machines, maintenance contracts, and repairs...plus the many clerks to handle the volumn, plus their benefits, and then there is the buildings, desks, chairs, mats, paper, envelopes, and postage, etc... So I can see with their costs how it could go up...but yes I think $27 is quite high, but when you consider how long it takes them to raise the price, perhaps we just lucked out for all this time...LINDA