OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — After some back and forth, a federal judge has ruled on a date for the 2020 census.
With congressional seats and federal funding decided by the count, Nebraska leaders are doing all they can to ensure everyone submits it.
The deadline to submit the census was pushed from September 30 to October 31. Civic leaders in Omaha gathered at Dreamland Park for Last Push Nebraska, to talk about the importance of everyone being counted.
"It was very important for us as a community to come together and to really get a message out to the final individuals, households in the city of Omaha and perhaps across the state to say get counted. Don’t wait until the census worker knocks on your door," said Blanca Ramirez-Salazar, the partnership coordinator for Dallas Regional Census Center.
State Senator Tony Vargas said most people have already submitted their census, but a small percentage of Nebraskans have yet to do so. That percentage could cost the state thousands of dollars in federal funding every year.
"We still have three percent of the population, that’s 60,000 people in the state, that haven’t completed it and every person that’s counted is $1,500. Tens of millions of dollars, and nearly a billion dollars in the next ten years, and that’s great programs that help our early childhood, our early ed, Medicaid, food stamps, our school lunch programs and our roads and infrastructure," Vargas said.
Western Omaha is close to a 100 percent response rate, so Nebraska Counts is really focusing their outreach on north and south Omaha, where minority communities tend to be under counted.
"These are the communities time after time are under counted and so this is not new. This is not a new phenomenon but we still want to highlight it so I think it’s really important that no one is speaking for your community. By doing the census you’re speaking up and saying this is who I am, this is how I identify myself," Heather Engdahl, census director for Nebraska Counts said.
To complete the census you can go to 2020census.gov.
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