Have you filled out and sent in your 2010 Census? The forms went out last week and should have been in your mailbox by now. I received mine, filled it out as soon as it came and returned it. I didn't want to set it aside, thinking "I'll do it later" and then have it forgotten. It was very easy, 10 questions, all easy to understand and not personally invasive.
Some people may not understand the importance of filling this form out. It is not that the Government is being nosey, of which they frequently are accused us, but need this information to distribute our tax dollars to the areas that are in need. This information will tell them the numbers that are living in our Cities and the ages of people. Many of the Social Service dollars are distributed in this way, to the needy areas and other dollars for improvements such as infastructure. Troy is one City that fell below 50,000 in the last Census and we lost aid because of this. In reality I find it very hard to believe we were below 50,000, just take a look around you. Look at the large houses that have been broken down into multi-apartments, and many Census forms delivered to those houses are inadequate. Records may show it is a 2 or 3 Family house, when in reality, it may now be 5 to 6 apts in there, so the proper number of forms never arrive. Many of the apts are also severely overcrowed and they fear being evicted so they don't fill out the form or fill it out incorrectly understating the amount of people there. Thus, we show less than our City has and hence get less funding. I hope the Government also does a cross reference on the amount of Citizens in the area on Social Services, Unemployment, and Elementary and High School enrollments and compare that number with the numbers that come back in the Census forms, that would show whether or not there is an imbalance to our numbers as the forms are returned.
Also we have a number of illegals living in the City, obviously they are not going to fill out a form or the people that they are living with are not going to include them.
We need to have these forms filled out properly and returned so we can receive our fair share of our Tax dollars returned to us. I have heard some make statements such as "I am not giving them any of my personal information, they know too much already!" Folks, if you know of any of these people, please try to stress the importance of filling out the form. Most people don't realize that there are other benefits to the count besides just knowing how many people live in the Country, State and Cities.
If you need help with it, Call City Hall in Troy as our Mayor has set up various times and places for Trojans to go and ask questions and receive help filling out the form.
If there is anything I have missed or any comments you would like to add, please do so, this is a BLOG for the Community, and we all jump in to comment because, "That's the Way It Is"!
