Myers: State College, Centre Region must have an accurate census count
Recently there was an article in the Centre Daily Times that indicated there were 231 less residents in State College in 2020 than in 2010. For anyone in the region who has seen the growth recently, especially in State College, you might ask, how could there be less people? Is this true? The simple answer is it is not true. It is wrong.
How and why? The Commerce Department is charged with conducting a census every 10 years. It is in the U.S. Constitution. It’s not an amendment. It was there from the start. Its importance is underscored by being upfront in Article 1, Section 1. For the last several counts the number of those residing in the United States is enumerated on April 1 of each 10-year cycle. That meant the last one was on April 1, 2020. It does not say each person must be physically in their place of residence on April 1, just that it be their main place of domicile for a majority of the year. That definition means that college students have been historically counted in the census in the places they live while attending school. After all they pay taxes, fees, and benefit from the services of those locations for a better part of 9 months or more.
What has happening on April 1, 2020? COVID. Penn State was closed, there were no in-person classes. Students and others had scattered to other places. Does this mean they shouldn’t have been counted because they were not physically here? No, it doesn’t. If I, a 50-year resident of State College, had been out of town on April 1, 2020, would I have been counted where I was or attributed to State College? The answer is obviously State College. Census officials and local governments did work together to try to get an accurate count, but it was not adequate.
There was a significant undercount of college students and others in the 2020 census, probably in the thousands in State College and surrounding townships. What does this mean for State College and the Centre Region? It means that the increasing population that pays taxes won’t see a fair share of those taxes returned locally. It might mean less funding for housing that is needed to help fill the gap for affordable housing in the region. It might mean less funding for aid to those suffering from food insecurity. It might mean less funding for mental health initiatives, less funding for streets and bridges.
The bedrock of democracy in the United States is one person, one vote. For that right people have struggled and died. From the Revolutionary War cry of “no taxation without representation,” to the Civil War that freed a people from slavery and constitutionally won them the right to vote, to the civil rights movement to guarantee that right.
When there is an undercount that means the district lines for the State House, the State Senate and our representatives in U.S. Congress are drawn incorrectly. Simply put, our votes count less because there are actually more people in our local districts than others — we are underrepresented. This undermines democracy. One thing is for certain, we must count every single resident in the place where they live as is spelled out in the Constitution to ensure equal representation. We need local governments to request a recanvas of State College and the Centre Region to get the count right. There are some things the recanvas would impact like getting a fairer share of funding — for other things, like re-districting of legislative districts, we will have to wait another 10 long years. Every person counts and every person must be counted where they live.
This story was originally published June 15, 2022 at 6:00 AM.