SALT LAKE CITY — If Utah State Lawmakers want an accurate count during the 2020 Census they might have to spend some state money for it.
“We have to have an accurate count, it’s something we do every ten years,” former state representative Rebecca Chavez-Houck told KSL’s “A Woman’s View”
There are new efforts in Utah as well as several other states to get state money to help pay for the 2020 census because the federal government did not increase its budget from 2010 and is leaning on the internet for counting. California is planning on spending $90 million on it.
There are a lot of things that depend on an accurate census count as well, “Medicaid to education transportation to criminal justice, all the things we get from the Federal government, are based on what our population count looks like,” Chavez-Houck said.
The drawing of legislative and congressional district lines is something that would be affected as well. Chavez-Houck says that’s an issue for some of Utah’s rural areas because they don’t have the same budget to invest in helping to get an accurate count and if there isn’t an accurate count then they won’t be represented in government.
But she says rural communities don’t have the money to invest in helping get an accurate count. some community and non-profit groups say they will help reach everyone.
You can hear that part of this Sunday’s A Woman’s View by listening below