Make sure you’re counted

The Census gives a voice to every individual for federal funding of their communities and for fair civic representation. Florida Counts Census 2020 is a coalition of Florida nonprofit organizations, and we are alarmed at the weak self-response rates in Florida for the 2020 Census.

We ask our national, state and local government officials to use your influence to help improve census response in your community. As of this writing, the response rate for Broward County is 58%. That is alarmingly below the national average of 62.6%.

In the last Census, in 2010, Florida posted the third largest state omissions (missing 1.4 million people), with a resultant estimated loss of $20 billion in federal funding to Florida over the following decade. We do not want a repeat performance this year. Federal funding that is determined by the Census accounts for more than a third of Florida’s state budget revenues. The stakes are huge: for each adult and child missed, Florida’s state and local budgets will lose an estimated $15,000 per person per year. The good news is that the timetable for the Census self-response has been extended until October 31, 2020, so there is still time to fix this. So what can Florida’s leaders do? Encourage constituents to complete their Census: include Census messaging in town halls, on social media, in newsletters and in your staff ’s daily personal interactions with your constituents.

Tell your followers that it is important, it is easy to complete and their information is completely private.

You can refer your constituents to our Florida Counts Census 2020 coalition at www.FLCounts.com or they can text “Census” to “66539” and we will help them.

Please help us boost Census participation. For Floridians, the next 10 years will be defined by how we perform on the Census now.

Mark Adler, Executive Director of Meals on Wheels South Florida