Protecting the Census and why it Matters
By Albert B. Kelly
I don’t know how closely you follow the happenings coming
out of Washington D.C., especially coming off the holidays, but if you’re like
me you find yourself trying to avoid looking at the mess for too long because
it just makes you feel bad or angry or worried or whatever. Yet, we have an
obligation to look and to be aware because what happens there, trickles down to
us in our communities and neighborhoods and much impacts our lives directly and
indirectly.
This can be said of many issues, but for the moment I’m mostly
thinking about the upcoming 2020 census and more specifically about the
administration’s intention to include a citizenship question as part of the census.
If you recall, our Constitution requires that we count the whole number of
persons in each state and this is to happen every 10 years. As far as gathering
information beyond a simple head count, the courts of ruled on multiple
occasions that there is no problem with gathering more detailed information.
On the face of it, this seems reasonable enough. After all
why wouldn’t the government want to have as much statistical information as
possible? But as far as it goes, we’re not talking about a neutral entity when
referring to “the government”, we’re talking about individuals and human nature
and I’m not at all sure that the information collected as it relates to
citizenship, won’t be used in the worst ways possible.
One major concern of many who are involved with the census
is that any question involving citizenship will cause a huge number of people
to avoid census workers with the end result being a count that is inaccurate. This
is no small thing.
The census serves as baseline for so many things including ensuring
equal, that is to say proportional, representation. The census is also used to
draw Congressional and legislative districts- which play a major role in
shaping the voice of the people and how we speak. Perhaps just as importantly, the
census is used to apportion and distribute an enormous amount of aid and
resources to states, communities, and subdivisions.
Many communities, some rural but mostly urban, will suffer
if the census in their respective communities is inaccurate because clusters of
people are not counted. But here’s the thing, regardless of whether or not
people and families are included in the headcount, local and state governments
still have to provide services, infrastructure, and everything else that comes
with community life.
Should whole clusters of people be missed by the census
workers, it would impact either access to federal and state resources or the
specific amount of resources a community receives. This in turn would directly
affect quality of life as well as public safety since most aid flows to the
community level through a formula developed in large part from census data. New
Jersey receives upwards of $17.5 billion dollars from the federal government.
While I don’t have a number in terms of Bridgeton, it’s not insignificant.
This isn’t just about aid or resources going to one group or
another and it’s not just about “po folk”; it’s about all taxpayers in a given state
or community getting their share of resources including funding for Wildlife Restoration,
Highway Planning and Construction, Career and Technical Education, Beach
Monitoring, and Hazardous Waste Management to name a few- all shaped from the
census.
It is worth mentioning that when it comes to paying taxes, a
fair number of undocumented individuals do so through the Individual Taxpayer
Identification Number or “ITIN” which is issued by the IRS to those ineligible
for a social security number.
As one writer recently pointed out; the idea of a census
goes back to ancient times and it was all about allowing rulers to impose and
collect taxes and confiscate property. What is unique about our census is that it’s
about empowering the individual citizen albeit in the form of communities and
states. The census is administered by the government, but one primary purpose
is to return resources to the people where they need it most while helping to
give form and shape to government by the people, for the people and of the
people with all that this implies.
The census, at least our census, stands on its own as it has
for generations and it shouldn’t be corrupted or weaponized and we need to say
as much to our elected officials.