Guest Editorial: Importance of Census form

Hi Folks,

The COVID 19 crisis can make everything else, including the Census, seem less important. But completing your Census form only takes 10 minutes and will benefit and influence our community for the next ten years.

Census counts are used to determine how federal funding is distributed. Montana receives almost $2,000.00 every year for each Montanan counted in the Census for things like highway projects, health care, education, housing, and more. But for every person not counted, our community will lose out on $20,000.00 over the next decade.

In this difficult time, filling out your census form is one way to step up and help your community.

Census data is used to determine House Districts for Congress, as well as the House and Senate Districts in Montana. Montana is teetering on the brink of having enough people for another Congressional House Seat. If that happens, that House seat is removed from somewhere else, most likely one of the bigger states, like California or New York, where their populations are falling.

As many of you recall during the last Montana Legislative Redistricting cycle, Jefferson County was able to retain our County-wide House seat but were paired with a House District from Butte/Silver Bow for our Senate seat. It is essential that we get an accurate Census count in Jefferson County so that we can work from a position of strength during the Redistricting process.

Montana is currently the seventh-worst state in the U.S. for self-responding to the 2020 Census, with a self-response rate of only 51 percent. We must do better than that.

Door knockers from the Census Bureau are scheduled to visit households that have not yet responded. But they won't need to visit you if you do your part in completing the Census now. It's easy, just go online to my2020census.gov or call 844-330-2020, or mail back the form you got in your mailbox and help the Census workers visit fewer households.

It's fast, easy, secure, and it will help Montanans for years to come.

Help make it count for Jefferson County and for Montana.

You can learn more about the importance of the Census at CENSUS.MT.GOV