Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
The census count will impact us for 10 years.
Trapped at home, everyone has a spare 10 minutes to complete a simple census form. But in too many places, that’s not the case. This has to change. If it doesn’t, our region and state could be cut short for years to come.
Let’s start with Fort Lauderdale, Broward’s largest city. So far, fewer than half of the city’s households have answered the survey. It’s near the bottom of U.S. cities with populations greater than 150,000. It’s also a laggard compared to other Broward cities.
Fort Lauderdale’s household response rate stood at 49 percent this week. For comparison, here’s how other cities are doing: Cooper City, 76 percent; Parkland, 71 percent; Weston, 71 percent; and Pembroke Pines, 66 percent. In Palm Beach County, the Boca Raton response rate is 56 percent, and Delray Beach’s is 48 percent.
According to Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis, the city’s census response has been so lackluster that he received a personal call from U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross — an obvious warning sign.
In his latest newsletter to city residents, Trantalis explains what’s at stake. Federal funding formulas use population to determine benefits. The more people, the more money a city receives for housing, schools, roads, food, hospitals and other needs.
Medicaid is by far the largest source of federal funding determined by population — and Florida has one of the nation’s largest number of uninsured residents. Medicaid caseloads are expected to grow dramatically because of the coronavirus pandemic, with millions of people displaced from their jobs and losing their health insurance.
A study by the Brookings Institution said each person who’s counted in the census means up to several thousands of Medicaid dollars to that state. So a census undercount is literally dangerous to our health.
An undercount also will short-change the money we get for roads, bridges and other infrastructure needs to handle the population growth and climate impacts headed our way.
The census also helps to determine political representation in Tallahassee and Washington, where district lines are redrawn once a decade based on population changes. Broward and Palm Beach counties have strong leaders in both capitals, but as South Florida continues to grow, it needs more voices.
The most recent state-by-state response rates reported by the U.S. Census Bureau placed Florida at No. 32, with an overall response rate of 56 percent. Minnesota was No. 1 at 69 percent. Eight of the top 10 states are in the Midwest, a part of the country where people take their census responsibilities seriously.
Nothing against Minnesota, you betcha, but think of it this way: Why should we send our hard-earned federal tax dollars up there? That money should stay here. To do that, we all need to be counted.
Fort Lauderdale’s transient and seasonal population poses special challenges to counting heads. As Mayor Trantalis noted, poor and minority communities are traditionally most at risk of being undercounted. But he also said fewer than 4 out of 10 people from the exclusive Las Olas Isles and the city’s barrier island have submitted their forms.
The pandemic has severely disrupted census field operations and has prevented workers from conducting door-to-door follow-up visits to non-responsive households. Fort Lauderdale and Lauderdale Lakes are two of 15 cities in Florida where the bureau was scheduled to resume delivery of paper forms Wednesday, using protective gear and following CDC protocols.
The health emergency has created outreach opportunities, too. People waiting in line for free food at delivery sites are getting cards that remind them to fill out their forms. On social media, cities and counties have promoted participation in the census. A progressive group, New Florida Majority, held a “Let’s Come to Our Census” forum Thursday featuring actor Jenny Lorenzo and former Miami Heat star Alonzo Mourning.
Sheltering at home, people in South Florida have demonstrated common sense during the spread of COVID-19. They now need to bring that same self-discipline to returning their census forms.
If you lost your form, no problem. Go to my2020census.gov or call 844-330-2020.
Filling out the survey takes 10 minutes out of your life, but it could make a profound difference for all of us for the next 10 years.