With Census Day less than a month away, Venango County is forming a committee to promote the 2020 census in the county.
While Census Day falls on April Fool’s Day, filling out the census is not a joke.
Census data is used to determine the number of representatives Pennsylvania sends to the U.S. House, county commissioner Mike Dulaney said.
If Pennsylvania’s population has declined, as is projected, the state’s seats in the House will go from 19 to 18, Dulaney said.
“We don’t want to lose representation by being undercounted,” Dulaney said.
The demographic and population data collected in the 2020 census will also be used to determine the amount of federal funding going to municipalities and counties, according to Breene.
“Almost every formula for how federal money is distributed uses census data,” Breene said.
The amount of Community Development Block Grant funding, Housing and Urban Development money, Human Services funding, Children and Youth Services funding, as well as money for roads and bridges, is all determined by the data gathered from the census, according to Breene.
“Our tax money is going someplace that isn’t here, if we are undercounted,” Dulaney said.
The first notification to fill out the census will arrive in the mail March 12. Census data will be collected through the end of July.
April 1 marks the start of a nine-month during which the first census reports must be submitted, Dulaney said.
