Big Cities Sue for Changes in ’90 Census : Say Low Counting of Minorities Costs Them Money, Clout

Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago and Miami’s Dade County filed suit against the Census Bureau today to force changes in population-counting methods in the 1990 census in an effort to end “chronic under-counting” of urban blacks and Latinos.

They were joined by the nation’s two largest states, California and New York.

The lawsuit was filed in Brooklyn federal court, alleging that the Department of Commerce has refused to accept a recommendation from its own Census Bureau that new statistical techniques be adopted, said New York City assistant corporation counsel Neil Corwin.

Matter of Equal Rights

“From a civil rights point of view, it has to do with equal voting rights,” Corwin said, explaining that cities in which population is under-counted are under-represented in Congress.

“From the federal funding point, there are a number of programs based on population figures. If New York has more people than the Census Bureau gives it credit for, they are going to suffer in the amount of federal funds they get,” he said.

Under-counting often affects minority members and illegal aliens, because many do not respond to the mailed census forms.

The National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities and the League of United Latin American Citizens have joined in the suit, as have eight respected community members from major urban centers.

Voting Power Diluted

“If you have states or cities like New York that have a large percentage of groups that are chronically under-counted, then the population (count) will be significantly less than the actuality,” Corwin said. “Because of that it gets its voting powers diluted and may have fewer representatives elected to Congress.”

Thirty-seven states and localities sued the Commerce Department after the 1980 census, alleging that the Census Bureau’s methods left large numbers of blacks and Latinos under-counted.

U.S. District Judge John Sprizzo in Manhattan ruled in favor of the Commerce Department, agreeing with the Census Bureau’s position that new statistical methods that could redress the under-counting needed further testing before they could be considered reliable.

The Census Bureau followed with five years of testing, including a sampling of 300,000 households, and concluded that the methodology was acceptable.

The bureau recommended that the methodology be accepted, but the Commerce Department balked, prompting the new lawsuit, Corwin said.