Census dispute heads to D.C.

Cache municipalities unanimous in challenge that could bring more funds to valley

September 28, 2007
By Charles Geraci

Cache County 's challenge of the U.S. Census Bureau's population figures is in the mail.

The move is apparently the first time in the history of the U.S. census that every municipality within a county has challenged the census estimates.

“It's a groundbreaking effort,” said Countywide Planner Wendell Morse, whose office mailed all of the documentation via FedEx to Washington , D.C. , on Thursday.

The county planning office coordinated the effort, but each city is challenging its own data.

County officials maintain that the 2006 population estimates are not accurate and find it disconcerting that the numbers show several cities and towns in the county to be losing population. Instead, they believe nearly every municipality in the county has a higher population than in the estimates.

According to the county's numbers, the bureau slightly overestimated Logan and North Logan 's figures, but both would still gain population over the 2005 estimates.

In addition, since 2000, both Logan and North Logan have challenged the bureau's statistics and received increases in the numbers at the expense of other municipalities in the county, according to Morse.

“You have to understand that when they made their challenge, that it made all these other cities lose population because the Census Bureau basically leaves the county about the same,” Morse said.

The county's data suggest that Smithfield has taken over North Logan as the second largest city in the county in terms of population. The town of Paradise had the largest percent increase — 31 percent — over the 2005 census estimates. The total population of Cache County stands at 106,399 according to the county's figures.

Morse does not believe other Utah counties will suffer as a result of Cache County 's challenge. However, he noted that Cache County could receive “hundreds of thousands” of additional dollars in sales tax money and road funds if the challenge is accepted. More federal dollars would also be funneled into the state as a result, and much of that could end up going to Cache County as well, according to Morse.

“I don't think we're going to take population away from others, but we don't know,” Morse said. “This has never been done before, so the Census Bureau is going to have a new decision to make in Washington . Scary thought, isn't it?”

The county's challenge is based on building permit data and average household sizes in the municipalities, as determined by the 2000 census.

Kent Braddy, the county's Geographic Information Systems coordinator, said the county's challenge could be setting a precedent for other counties in Utah .

“If county and city governments realized that their funding is based so heavily on federal census numbers, they'll pay more attention to it,” Braddy said.

Morse added that any county experiencing rapid growth “ought to be interested in doing it,” citing Washington County as an example.

At first, Morse wondered if challenging the census was pragmatic, but he says he's glad his office followed through.

“When we started looking at the financial ramifications of this, it became a pretty exciting thing to be involved in,” Morse said. “I think the Census Bureau will remember Cache County .”

(Source:Census 2000 Supplementary Survey / Los Angeles Times)