By Larry Jones
February 11, 2008

West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel, Chair of the Urban Economic Policy Committee, joined mayors in congratulating Steve H. Murdock on his recent appointment as the new director of the U.S. Census Bureau, and for meeting with mayors to share information on what they can do to help ensure a more accurate census count in the 2008 Census. Frankel reminded mayors about the importance of census data, stating, “Not only is this data used to redraw political districts for elected officials, but it is used to allocate hundreds of billions of dollars in federal aid to state and local governments annually.”

To update mayors on the Census Bureau’s plans, Murdock explained that numerous efforts are underway to prepare for the up coming census. Later this year, he said the Bureau will conduct a “dress rehearsal” in certain areas to test new procedures and techniques that will be used to conduct the census to make sure they work as expected. Starting in March 2010, he said the Bureau will send out questionnaires to everyone, followed by reminder post cards. A second questionnaire will be sent to some neighborhoods where the response rate is low. And then, the Bureau will hire 500,000 enumerators to go out and obtain data from households that do not respond. Partnership programs have been established to work with each community to help ensure a complete count. Also approximately 30,000 centers will be opened to help people with language and other issues.

Commenting on what mayors can do to help, Murdock urged mayors to respond in a timely manner to the Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) process, which calls for local input in helping the Bureau develop a complete address list for the census count. He also told mayors that in the middle of the year, the Bureau will ask communities to set up complete count committees, which will involve community leaders who can assist the Bureau in getting people to respond to the census. He also called on mayors to assist the Bureau in recruiting 500,000 enumerators needed to conduct the census. In closing he said, “Probably the most important thing you can do is to reassure people that it is safe to respond to the census.”

Several other speakers presented various topics ranging from new Internet Tax legislation to communications tax reform and training highly qualified public servants. David Quam, director of federal relations for the National Governors’ Association, commended the Conference of Mayors for partnering with the governors and other groups to win the approval of the 2007 amendments to the Internet Tax Freedom Act. The amendments clarified the definition of Internet access and extended for seven more years a law originally enacted in 1998 that imposes a moratorium on any new state and local taxes on Internet access fees. He explained the legislation was viewed as a success despite the fact state and local governments did not get everything they wanted. He said, “We asked for a four-year extension in light of the rapid changes occurring in technology and the Internet, but we ended up with a seven year extension. This was not a bad compromise considering that the opposition was pushing for a permanent bill. He also said the clarification of the definition of Internet access was a significant victory for state and local governments. It, for the first time, made clear that the moratorium on state and local taxes only applied to the service that connects a user to the Internet and not to goods and services sold over the Internet. Because of how the law was written, some legal experts felt it could have been interpreted to mean any goods or services offered as part of a package with Internet access had to be offered tax-free.

Trammel Alexander, director of state tax policy at Verizon, discussed how communications taxes differ from taxes imposed on general retail services. She explained that communications taxes in many states are significantly higher than taxes on general retail services. Verizon and some other communications companies believe communications taxes are discriminatory and should be reformed so that they are no higher than taxes imposed on general retail. Alexander mentioned that Virginia and a few other states have reformed their communications tax laws and that these states offer a good model for other states to follow when considering changes in their com munications tax laws. The model state were mentioned because of the involvement of industry, state and local groups, consumer groups and other interested parties in the process.

Paula Gavin, President of the National Urban Fellows Program (NUFP), informed mayors that NUFP was founded in 1969 to prepare men and women of all ethnic and racial backgrounds to become effective leaders in government. From its beginning, the program was affiliated with the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National League of Cities. The program selects 40 to 50 Fellows annually from all parts of the country for a rigorous 14-month full-time graduate program comprised of two semesters of academic course work and a nine-month mentorship program, which leads to a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from Baruch College, School of Public Affairs, of the City University of New York.

Gavin explained that many of the Fellows are placed in local governments in various departments and agencies including the mayor’s office and the city manager’s offices. She said over a thousand alumni are in the network of Fellows and about half are working in government. She pledged to continue partnering with the U.S. Conference of Mayor and reaching out to cities to make them aware of the program, and encourage them to cooperate in the placement of Fellows.