2010 census survey isn't optional

The government wants to get to know you, your name, gender, age, birth date and race. Who lives with you, do you own or rent your home?

It's not optional - a survey will arrive in the mail in March or April and by law you have to answer the questions truthfully and send it back. Refusing to answer the questionnaire is punishable by a fine up to $100; deliberately lying could bring a $500 fine.

The questions are part of the 2010 U.S. census, a once-a-decade effort to count everyone who lives in the country. It's kicking into high gear as the end of the decade approaches. The U.S. Census Bureau, part of the federal Department of Commerce, is planning to open an office in Colorado Springs on Jan. 12. The office will employ more than 800 temporary workers responsible for conducting the survey throughout 46 of Colorado's 64 counties, and one county in northern New Mexico.

Federal agencies use data collected in the census to parcel out $300 billion in tax money annually, according to the Census Bureau. Money for federal highway projects, for example, is partly guided by census population figures.

"It's very important to local communities to have an accurate count so they can get their fair share of those dollars," census spokesman Doug Wayland said Wednesday.

The numbers guide how each state gets representatives in Congress. After the 2000 census, Colorado got its seventh seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Local government agencies and businesses also use the data, all available for free on the census Web site, www.census.gov.

The count includes people who live in all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa. It takes in citizens and noncitizens. The estimated cost is $13.7 billion to $14.5 billion, the most expensive census since the counts started in 1790, even after adjusting for inflation, according to the Government Accountability Office.

The Census Bureau is just about done accepting applications for managers in its Colorado Springs office, Wayland said. There will be an office manager (salary about $52,000 per year), an assistant manager of field operations (about $43,000), and four other assistant managers (about $36,000). Those jobs wrap up in August 2010. After the office is open, recruitment will start for more than 800 temporary employees who will work four weeks to six weeks verifying addresses for the surveys sent by mail to every household. Those workers get $10 to $16.25 per hour.

Workers will send census surveys by mail, and people who don't reply will get a knock on their doors. Census officials work with groups in each local area to identify hard-to-count populations, such as organizations that run homeless shelters.
The Census Bureau keeps responses private - something federal law says it must do.

"The census takes that responsibility as a top priority," Wayland said. "Filling out the census is safe. Everyone who is hired by the census takes an oath of confidentiality. The penalties are severe, and then the data that is collected is not identified to the individual."

In previous surveys, every sixth household got a "long form" questionnaire with many more questions, down to how each person gets to work and whether a household has telephone service. The long form will be absent from the census in 2010, replaced by the annual American Community Survey, which goes to just 3 million households.