Governor Andrew Cuomo says he will include an additional $10 million in his state budget proposal for the 2020 national census to make sure that as many New Yorkers as possible are counted.
Cuomo says the additional money will be used to target traditionally hard to count populations, including immigrants. The Democratic governor says they may be wary of a federal government led by President Donald Trump, that Cuomo says 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 says older adults might also be undercounted, because the census is supposed to be done on line this year, and many elderly are not computer savvy.
The census numbers determine everything from the number of congressional representatives a state has, to funding for numerous programs.
Also on Monday, Cuomo announced that Lin-Manuel Miranda, Lucy Liu and Martin Luther King III have been tapped to co-chair the state's Census Council.
The state plans to spend a total of $70 million on the census count this year. New York is facing a $6 billion budget deficit. Cuomo is scheduled to deliver his budget address Jan. 21.
