State sets aside $6 million for outreach

Fearing an undercount of Coloradans during next year’s census that could cost the state hundreds of millions of federal dollars, the state will spend $6 million for census outreach.

Gov. Jared Polis signed House Bill 1239 on Thursday, allowing local governments, school districts, charities and tribes to receive grants.

Those grants must be used to reach hard-to-count groups, such as Hispanics, young children and the elderly, rural Coloradans, the homeless and transient people.

The bill’s sponsors originally sought $12 million for census outreach, telling a House committee in March that even a 1 percent undercount will cost Colorado more than $630 million in federal dollars over the following decade. A 1.3 percent swing in the count in either direction also could make the difference in how many congressional seats Colorado has during the 2020s, they said.

“If we don’t get this count right, we know that over a 10-year period, the state will lose about $20,000 of federal funds for every person we fail to count,” Rep. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat, said during debate on the House floor last month. “Every single missed person has an impact on the state budget of about $20,000. Small mistakes add up over the course of the 10 years in between the census.”

The nonpartisan Colorado Health Institute estimates that as many as 4 percent of Coloradans are at risk of going uncounted next year.

A wide variety of Colorado interest groups warned the General Assembly of an undercount and backed the census outreach legislation.

Republicans overwhelmingly opposed that bill, calling it a frivolous use of taxpayer money that may be used to improperly count undocumented immigrants.

Rep. Susan Beckman, R-Littleton, warned on the House floor April 11 that outreach grants often go to liberal groups like Planned Parenthood or ACORN, a defunct group accused by Republicans of voter fraud a decade ago.

“We have significant needs in the state of Colorado, and we’re going to spend $6 million on a duplicative effort that will end up being community organizing, taxpayer funded, in our communities. It will be interesting to see where this money goes,” Beckman said.

Rep. Lori Saine, a Firestone Republican, said parts of Colorado may receive “ill-gotten gains” if undocumented immigrants are counted. “I’m just concerned that we’re maybe counting more people than we should be counting in some of these districts,” she said on the House floor.

HB 1239 passed the Senate on April 27, with all Democrats and Republican Sen. Kevin Priola of Henderson supporting it. Two days later, it passed the House on a party-line vote.

California may spend upward of $150 million on its census outreach efforts. New York has set aside $20 million for that purpose, Maryland will spend $5 million, New Mexico has set aside $3.5 million and Georgia has allocated $2.3 million for census outreach. Several other states have pending legislation that would put millions of dollars toward counting more of their citizens.

Colorado’s census grant program will be overseen by a fivemember committee appointed by the secretary of state and legislative leaders from both parties. The grants must be awarded before Nov. 1 of this year.

“This is something that will actually be able to deliver dollars to every single one of our districts,” Rep. Kerry Tipper, a Lakewood Democrat, said during the House debate April 11.