By Larry Jones
July 2, 2012

Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory welcomed U.S. Census Bureau Deputy Director Thomas Messenbourg to the June 13 meeting of the Census Task Force. Mallory told mayors that the Census Bureau is challenged due to the funding situation in Washington and he invited Messenbourg to provide mayors an update on the activities of the Bureau.

Messenbourg told mayors that the 2010 Census was a huge success. The undercount for 2010 was 0.01 percent compared 0.49 percent in 2000. This is the lowest rate on record. He said at the national level, the Bureau estimates there were 16 million omissions; six million of these could be attributed to census imputations. These omissions were offset by ten million (3.3 percent) erroneous enumerations (mostly duplicates) and six million imputations. As a whole he said the erroneous enumerations and imputations were lower among people who mailed back the census form.

He warned mayors that the proposed House budget would put a number of census program at risk. The American Community Survey, which replaces the long form and is done on an annual basis to provide current data for planning, was one of the programs that would suffer if the House budget is finally approved. He also said the 2012 Economic Census and the 2020 Census would suffer. The problem is the House budget for 2013 would provide $357 million less that than the amount requested by the Administration and the amount in the Senate's budget. This drastic reduction could eliminate all of these vital programs that provide important information for planning and allocation of federal funds.

Akron Mayor Donald L. Plusquellic commented that while the census has improved over the years, there is still concern that in certain central cities the undercount may be higher than it should be. He stressed concern that some of the census offices were not located in the best places and were not as accessible as they could have been.

On a positive note, Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan Barnett told mayors that in the 2000 Census his city was in the bottom five percent of census in Oakland County. The city experienced a 72 percent response rate form residents returning the census form. As a result, he said the city left 28 percent of its potential funding in Washington (DC). With a much better organized outreach effort to all sections of the community in 2010, he reported that the city experienced the fifth highest rate of response in the nation and increased its funding by $140,000 per year.