Lawmakers OK funds for census ad blitz

Brendan Riley

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2000 | 12:16 p.m.

CARSON CITY - Nevada lawmakers voted Wednesday to approve $788,400 for a media blitz to publicize the 2000 Census - and net up to $450 million in new federal funds over the next 10 years.

The Legislature's Interim Finance Committee authorized the funding on an emergency basis after Gov. Kenny Guinn said an undercount of Nevada residents in the 1990 Census may have cost the state $200 million.

If the count isn't accurate this year, Guinn added Nevada's loss over the coming decade could run as high as $450 million - money badly needed to deal with new government service demands in the nation's fastest growing state.

"Without it, we will certainly survive," said Guinn. "But we'll survive without the services to the people that we truly owe to these people - with their own money."

Secretary of State Dean Heller said the 1990 undercount was 2.4 percent or 29,000 residents. If the state reduces that to 1.6 percent - the national average - it stands to gain millions of dollars in additional federal aid, he added.

Heller added the funding will help in a unified effort involving the state and local governments to ensure an accurate count in 2000. "If it's purely a federal issue, we will lose in this process," he added.

"We don't want a federal message. We need a Nevada message," agreed Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said the need for a full count is so strong that lawmakers might need to approve still more emergency funding for the effort later this year.

California, which will spend more than $20 million on similar ads, gets $1.30 back for every $1 it sends to Washington, D.C. But Guinn said Nevada gets only 70 cents for every dollar it ships to the federal government.

During the 1990 census, 61 percent of Nevadans returned questionnaires mailed them by the Census Bureau. That return percentage was one of the lowest in the nation.