Census count will bring jobs to city

NEW HAVEN — A total of $10.7 billion in federal aid for Connecticut is at stake, as is the current number of congressional seats, not to mention good-paying, part-time jobs for residents.

All those factors are connected to a full count for the 2020 census, which the city and state have prioritized as crucial to cities and towns, as well as the state’s fiscal health for the next decade.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz and state Senate Pro Tempore Martin Looney were among the officials who talked up the process in a press conference at the Ives Library branch Thursday.

The census will be taken, starting in March 2020, but there are a dozen local management jobs that are open to applicants now with that work set for this June at an office in New Haven. The website to apply through is usajobs.gov

Interested persons are also encouraged to apply now for the large number of enumerator positions that will be needed next spring where workers will be walking door to door to encourage residents who have not returned their census forms either by mail, phone or online.

Lisa Moore, the assistant regional census manager, encouraged residents to apply now at 2020census.gov/jobs to be an enmerator, also known as census takers, or as a census field supervisor for part-time work that will pay $21 to to $23 an hour.

Moore said you only have to apply once and when the opportunity comes up, they will give you a call. The biggest number of jobs are for persons in the field next spring, but there is a smaller operation this summer, which involves address canvassing where workers walk blocks to make sure all addresses are correct.

Moore said the address canvassing work applications are also through 2020census.gov/jobs

The event in New Haven is part of a tour arranged by Bysiewicz to highlight the need to get the public on board on responding to the census and understanding what is at stake.

The lieutenant governor said the federal dollars distributed as a result of the census cover such programs as Medicaid, Pell Grants, school lunch, children’s health insurance, highway planning & construction, nutritional assistance and many more.

“Connecticut is ranked first in

the nation for paying the most in federal income taxes and we’re amongst the lowest in getting federal dollars in return,” Bysiewicz said. “We lose thousands of dollars for each person that is not counted in the census, therefore it is extremely important that state and local governments take an active role in facilitating counting efforts. I applaud the City of New Haven for being a leader by being one of the first municipalities to establish a comprehensive outreach plan for the 2020 Census.”

DeLauro said the federal dollars are crucial for towns “to make up the shortfall in municipal dollars,” so property taxes are not impacted.

Reaching everyone is crucial for an accurate count to meet the real needs of residents, the congresswoman said.

She said she has secured $3.5 billion in census funding, which includes $270 million “to help prepare, analyze, and publish the census”

Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven,

said a “precise count of the population of New Haven is critical for the city to receive its fair share of per capita federal funding.”

The big worry is the inclusion of a citizenship question in the census, which has been rejected by a lower court, but is headed to the Supreme Cout.

Will Ginsberg, who heads the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven, said not all officials want to make sure that everyone is counted and the citizenship question could discourage full participation.

He said the census answers the questions, “who we are, where we are, what we do as a people and as a community,” Ginsberg said.

“This reflects our values as a community. This is a community that believes and prides itself and always has believed that everyone matters. Everyone is an asset. Everyone makes a contribution . ... This community is about connection, it is about standing up for one another and nowhere is this more important than in the context of the census,” he said.