Bethel community leaders met to discuss growing concerns about the 2020 federal census on Tuesday. The results of the census determine the distribution of massive amounts of federal funding, and if Alaskans aren’t counted properly, they won’t get their fair share.
"Something in the neighborhood of $3 billion comes into the state, and that number is primarily dependent on what we know from the census," said Mike Walsh, the Director of Public Policy at the non-profit consulting company, The Foraker Group. "That's pretty big."
Of all the country's populations, Walsh said, Alaskans are the hardest group to count. Residents in remote communities have limited internet and postal service access, and federal census workers don’t often go door to door in Alaska’s smaller communities. Walsh said that during the 2010 census, federal employees did methodically knock on doors in Nome. Even then, they undercounted the town’s population by an estimated 8 percent. Rural Alaska has a high poverty rate, low levels of education and many residents with unstable housing, all of which can impact the accuracy of the census.
To make matters worse, Walsh said that the 2020 Census could be exceptionally disorganized, which would exacerbate these challenges. President Trump has yet to appoint a new Census Bureau director, and the department is not getting anything close to the funding it has received in the past.
If you want Alaska to get its fair share of federal money, Walsh said, it's time to talk to your congressional delegation about the budget.