Stand up and be counted.
Actually, you can sit at your desktop computer or at your dining room table with a pen in hand but, either way, Genesee County and City of Batavia officials are urging citizens to fill out and submit a 2020 U.S. Census form, an action that County Manager Jay Gsell says is central to the legislative and economic future of the community for years to come.
Gsell and County Planning Director Felipe Oltramari addressed the local census situation at Monday night’s City Council videoconference meeting, with both men sounding the alarm that self-response rates need to increase significantly.
“It is vitally important that we get that number up because of where we are unofficially and what we saw over this past decade as far as population in general,” Gsell said. “We need a response rate easily in the 85 to 90 percent range, if that’s possible. There are parts of this country that have achieved that in the past.”
Gsell said that the response rate thus far in Genesee County is 52 percent, in terms of people filling out the forms and sending them back, with another 45 percent on the internet side of things. He said that is a far cry from the 73 percent number in 2010.
If the rate doesn’t climb, it would negatively affect the county in several different ways, he said.
“Our 2010 census number was 60,079 people. Unofficially right now, as of 2019, we’re at 57,280 – so we’ve lost people representation-wise and potentially funding-wise in the future if our response rate is not as good as or better than what we did in the 2010 census,” Gsell said.
He added that about 19 percent of the county population consists of people 65 and over – “a vital statistic in terms of how this community is profiled, but also as far as the official count and what is normally a fairly high rate of participation for we senior citizens.”
Gsell said the census determines representation as well, and that New York is expected to lose one, maybe two, Congressional seats after the 2020 census based on the 18 million who live in the state.
“Two other things become critical – what happens as far as federal funding is concerned and how we are ranked as a community as a micropolitan area (between regions that include Buffalo and Rochester) and also what happens to our 27th Congressional District … when redistricting occurs after the 2020 Census,” he said.
In the City of Batavia, the self-response rate is currently at 47.7 percent, with three wards “somewhat underperforming,” Gsell said. Those are the Second, Fifth and Sixth wards, which range from 40.2 to around 46 percent.
According to census figures, the population of the City of Batavia was 15,465 in 2010.
He urged Council members to “encourage more people to fill out the form … it only takes less than five minutes to fill it out on the internet.”
Oltramari said paper forms have been mailed to anyone who has yet to respond, “so there’s really no excuse at this point to not return the census.”
“It’s like nine questions … it’s fairly simple to fill out and it’s a confidential thing,” he said, adding that by law, information on the census form cannot be shared with any federal agency for 72 years.
Census figures determine the amount of funding that comes into Genesee County, he said.
“This really helps us bring in revenue to our county and it’s not just government grants and those kinds of things, it’s actually Medicaid, Medicare, housing vouchers for people, energy assistance, adoption assistance, crime victims’ assistance … federal programs that fund every person basically in our county,” he said.
Oltramari also reported that for every person who is not counted, the county loses about $30,000 over 10 years.
“If we as a community have lost 2,500 people, that’s $75 million … that doesn’t come into our community."
He said the planning department is including fliers on the census to “grab-and-go” meals at Jackson and John Kennedy schools in Batavia, and that he knows that towns and villages are taking steps to maximize participation, singling out Pavilion and Pembroke as communities that are overperforming.
For those who haven’t responded by the end of May, enumerators will come to each household and leave notices. Completing a U.S. census form is mandated by the federal government.
To access the 2020 Census, go to www.my2020census.gov or to the City of Batavia and Genesee County websites. Also, a map showing the current self-response rates can be found on the Genesee County Planning Board website.
