Gov. Andrew Cuomo is announcing that an additional $10 million will be in his new state budget to help with the 2020 national census and to make sure that as many New Yorkers as possible are counted.
And he’s announced three celebrity chairs of his census commission: Martin Luther King III, "Hamilton" creator and star Lin Manuel Miranda and actor Lucy Liu.
Cuomo said the additional money will be used to target traditionally hard-to-count populations, including immigrants. The governor said they may be wary of a federal government led by President Donald Trump that Cuomo said has been “antagonistic” toward those born in other countries.
“We literally have to knock on doors, call people’s homes,” Cuomo said. “Let them understand what the census is.”
He said older adults might also be undercounted because the census is supposed to be done online this year, and many elderly people are not computer-savvy.
The census numbers determine everything from the number of congressional representatives a state has to funding for numerous programs. A recent report by the state comptroller found that New York once again in 2018 gave more money to the federal government in taxes than it received in return.
The state plans to spend a total of $70 million on the census count this year.
