With billions of dollars at stake, Wyomingites urged to respond to Census

Posted 7/14/20

If you have not yet responded to the 2020 Census, “responding now is critical,” the U.S. Census Bureau says.

The effort to count every single person in the U.S., Wyoming and Park …

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With billions of dollars at stake, Wyomingites urged to respond to Census

Posted

If you have not yet responded to the 2020 Census, “responding now is critical,” the U.S. Census Bureau says.

The effort to count every single person in the U.S., Wyoming and Park County will soon hit a new phase, in which Census workers will begin visiting every household that has not yet responded.

Wyomingites who have not filled out their Census questionnaires are being encouraged to do so online, over the phone or by mail.

“YOU have the power to decrease in person contact from a census taker and save taxpayer money all by encouraging others to take the Census,” said Edward Romasko, a Wyoming partnership specialist for the Census Bureau.

As of Sunday, only about 56% of Wyoming’s household had “self-responded” to the Census, which is below the national average of 62%. However, the response has been better in Park County, where 63.5% of households have already filled out their forms.

Census invitations were sent out to every household earlier this year, but residents don’t need a formal invitation to respond; they can simply visit www.my2020census.gov and complete the process in just a few minutes, or call 1-844-330-2020 with questions or to provide the information by phone.

Census workers — wearing masks and gloves — have already begun going door-to-door and leaving materials for Wyoming households that have not yet responded. Across the country, roughly 500,000 census takers have been hired to count everyone. A so-called “Nonresponse Followup” process will start within days in some areas and Wyomingites who don’t respond by mid-August can expect a visit from a census taker.

By law, every household is required to complete the census. The once-a-decade count traces its roots back to the U.S. Constitution, which says, “Representatives [in the U.S. House] and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States ... according to their respective Numbers.”

This year’s questionnaire asks for the names, dates of birth, sexes and races of the people living in a given residence, as well as the relationships between the residents and information about who owns the home. Individual responses are kept completely confidential, the Census Bureau says.

Population figures from the count have a big impact, including determining how some $675 billion of federal funding is divided up each year, the Census Bureau says.

“I think it’s really a cool thing to participate in a nationwide endeavor that has such a local level impact on the results for a decade — not just for a short period of time,” Lily Griego, a regional partnership coordinator for the 2020 Census, told Wyoming PBS late last year. “It’s every single year that $675 billion dollars comes into local communities.”

For every person who goes uncounted, their area loses roughly $36,000 in funding over the decade, Park County Clerk Colleen Renner has said.

While $675 billion may sound like a lot of money, some research suggests that’s a low estimate of the amount of funding controlled by the Census. Professor Andrew Reamer of George Washington University’s Institute of Public Policy calculated in February that Census data was used to guide $1.5 trillion worth of funding to state and local governments, nonprofits, businesses and households in fiscal year 2017.

The counts are also used to determine the number of lawmakers an area gets in the Wyoming House and Senate. Being undercounted (or simply losing population) can mean losing representation in the Legislature.

“Let’s make sure that all [Wyomingites] are counted once, only once, and in the right place,” Romasko said earlier this year.

Given the ability to respond online, by phone or by mail, “it has never been easier to complete your census questionnaire,” the bureau said in a recent news release “and Census results will shape the future of all Wyoming communities.”

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