$40M state outreach for census

ALBANY — Lawmakers will provide $40 million in state money to ensure New Yorkers are ready for next year’s census, sources told the Daily News on Wednesday.

The funds, to be included in the state budget, will go toward education and outreach targeting immigrants and low-income residents to make sure they are aware of how the census works and the consequences of an undercount.

Immigration advocates have pushed Gov. Cuomo to use state money for community-based census outreach as both the Assembly and Senate included the funds in their one-house budgets.

One source told The News that legislative leaders and Cuomo came to an agreement earlier Wednesday as they discussed details of the budget, which is due at the end of the month.

Last year, Cuomo and legislative leaders set up a 16-member Complete Count Commission to prepare the state for the 2020 count. However, the governor did not include any funding for outreach in his budget proposal.

Aides in recent months have repeatedly said, without offering specifics, that funds would be made available.

The proposal for $40 million originated with the laborbacked Fiscal Policy Institute, which released a report in October focusing on communities where there are “hard to count” people who may be wary of the process or just ignore the census altogether.

Mayor de Blasio said earlier this year that the city would allocate $4.3 million toward a similar public awareness campaign dubbed Get Counted NYC.