STATE LOSES IF WE'RE NOT ALL COUNTED

Dave Zweifel

January 20, 2010

It's estimated that at least 20,000 people in Wisconsin weren't counted during the 2000 Census.

In a state with more than 5 million residents, that may not seem like many except when you consider that the state loses roughly $1,000 in federal funding every year for each person who's not counted. That's a $20 million annual hit, $200 million in the 10 years between censuses. In other words, too much money, particularly for the most needy among us, to cavalierly throw away.

That's why a coalition of good government organizations has been formed to make sure it doesn't recur during the soon-to-be-started 2010 U.S. Census. Alarmingly, this year the Census Bureau has about a tenth of the money it had in 2000 to conduct its own education campaign.

So the "We Count! Wisconsin 2010 Census Project" hopes to step into the void. It has been organizing publicity campaigns, door-to-door visits and a host of other activities to encourage everyone in the state to get counted. Behind the campaign, which is being conducted separately from the official census operation, are the League of Women Voters, Disability Rights Wisconsin, Wisconsin Voices, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the Hmong American Friendship Association, La Casa de Esperanza and other organizations.

The idea is to get "feet on the ground" to reach particular communities, even if it takes one-on-one conversations in so-called "hard-to-count" areas, which include low-income, African-American, Asian, Latino, immigrant and other non-English-speaking communities.

There's a real concern this year that the devastating recession will hurt the count. Many Wisconsin workers who have lost jobs are working out of state. The Janesville area and its displaced GM workers are but one example. And then there's the fear among some communities that the census information will be shared with other agencies that could cause problems for families. By law, individual census information can't be shared with anyone.

During the typical census, roughly 70 percent of the population voluntarily fills out the Census Bureau forms sent to everyone's home. Getting the remaining 30 percent - and in hard-to-count areas, the percentage is much higher - is the challenge.

The Rev. David Smith, who has long been active in Madison's African-American Council of Churches, is chairing the Madison and Dane County Complete Count Committee. He says that volunteers are being recruited to go door to door, to have a presence at day care sites and libraries, to be where people congregate. Volunteers from the Hmong and Latino communities will work their neighborhoods.

"In short, we're pulling out all the stops," the pastor said, including preaching the importance of the census count from pulpits around town.

Obviously, the campaign requires money. The Joyce and Hagedorn foundations have stepped up with grants to get the ball rolling. Locally, Madison Gas and Electric and the Donor Collaborative have helped out, but literature, mailings, posters and material can be expensive. To do this right, contributions are still needed. Andrea Kaminski, executive director of the League of Women Voters' Education Fund, can provide more information at 256-0827.

"We hope to convince people that by being counted, they're each bringing at least $1,000 into the state of Wisconsin - $12,000 over the next 10 years," she notes. "That's a big incentive to take part in this piece of democracy."

And, of course, census counts have political implications because seats in the U.S. House are reapportioned following each tally of the population.

The nation's Founding Fathers placed so much stock in a census every 10 years that they wrote it into the Constitution. The least each of us can do is make sure we're counted.

Dave Zweifel is editor emeritus of The Capital Times.