Census ad blitz expected to pay off

Thursday, Jan. 27, 2000 | 11 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- An investment of less than $800,000 to publicize the 2000 Census could bring Nevada an additional $100 million in federal funds over the next 10 years, Secretary of State Dean Heller said Wednesday.

Heller told the state Board of Examiners that an undercount of Nevada residents in the 1990 Census was 2.4 percent or 29,000 residents. If the state reduces that to 1.6 percent -- which was the national average -- it stands to gain the extra money in federal aid.

He was speaking before the Board of Examiners approved an emergency allocation of up to $788,400 for a media blitz to make residents aware of the stakes in being counted. The request now goes to the Interim Finance Committee, which meets Feb. 2.

California, Heller said, has just agreed to spend $20 million to make sure all of its residents are counted.

For every dollar California sends to Washington, D.C., it receives back $1.30, Gov. Kenny Guinn, who heads the board, said. Nevada gets only 70 cents for every dollar it ships to the federal government, he said.

State Budget Director Perry Comeaux, in urging the approval, said he wanted to check how much of extra money might be flowing to local governments and ask them to put up a share.

But Heller said about $250,000 in services already has been donated to the census effort by the governments in Southern Nevada.

In other action, the board also adopted administrative rules for state agencies to follow in collecting the money that is owed for taxes, fees and services.

The new guidelines say those who fall behind will be dunned at 30 and 60 days, after which the debt will be turned over to a collection agency or the state attorney general's office.