Anaheim, Santa Ana Feel Bite of Census Undercount : Population: The federal decision not to update the 1990 figures leaves Anaheim with a $350,000 budget shortfall.

In Anaheim, city officials who had banked on a higher population count to bring in more federal funds learned instead that they will have a $350,000 hole to fill in an already strained budget.

In Washington, Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) conceded that California will probably lose one of the congressional seats it expected to gain.

And in Los Angeles, City Atty. James K. Hahn called the Bush Administration’s refusal to revise the 1990 Census figures “devastating news” for the city, saying it “smacks of racial politics.”

At issue Monday was the announcement by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Robert A. Mosbacher that he will not order a statistical revision of the most recent census, despite some reports that as many as 5 million people might have been missed by head counters. According to the Census Bureau’s own estimates, California was undercounted by 3.8%.

Partly because of misinformation and fears of government intrusion into their lives, immigrants and members of minority and low-income families are thought to have been disproportionately under-reported in the decennial census.

In Los Angeles, for example, the white undercount was estimated to be only 1.3%, whereas the Asian undercount was three times that level. The black and Latino undercounts were thought to be more than five times greater than the white undercount.

While Mosbacher’s decision affects the number of additional seats California will gain in the House of Representatives, it also has a direct impact on local cities. Their federal funding for a variety of programs is determined through their populations.

Hardest hit in Orange County were the county’s two biggest cities: Santa Ana and Anaheim. Under the Census Bureau’s upward revision released in June, Santa Ana was to have gained an additional 5.5% in population, pushing it to 310,000 people. Anaheim was to have gotten an extra 4.4% in undercounted residents, bringing it to 278,000.

But under Mosbacher’s ruling Monday, both cities will return instead to their original 1990 Census figures--293,742 for Santa Ana, and 266,406 for Anaheim.

Ron Rothschild, administrative services director for Anaheim, said the city already had anticipated in its budget projections some additional funding based on the upward revisions. Planners had used a projected 273,000 residents--a mid-range between the original 1990 Census projections and last month’s revised figures.

The decision Monday will leave the city with a shortfall of about $350,000 in federal funding from its original budget projections, based on payments of about $49 per person, he said.

“We probably should have been a little more conservative,” Rothschild said. “This is not a tremendously large loss, but I think we’ll feel everything at this point in time because things are so tight already.”

Anaheim Mayor Fred Hunter agreed, saying: “We’re already in a budget crisis, so this definitely hurts. . . . My gut reaction is there are a lot more people living here than the original Census count showed. . . . I would disagree with the secretary on this one.”

In Santa Ana, where the city lost a potential 16,258 extra residents, Mayor Daniel H. Young said, “I’m really disappointed because I really believe Santa Ana is at that (higher) level.”

But he added, “Politics seems to prevail. There seems to be an attitude in the (Bush) Administration to keep these numbers as low as possible . . . for federal budget purposes. And they’re doing it at the expense of a credible census survey.”

In Los Angeles, city officials promised to challenge Mosbacher’s decision in court.

“The 1990 Census--the first census in this century to reflect a larger undercount than the census preceding it--is gravely defective,” Mayor Tom Bradley said in a statement from Washington, where he was meeting with federal leaders to discuss the ramifications of the census undercount.

“We have no other recourse but to return to court immediately in an effort to protect the interest of the city and to ensure our residents receive their fair share of political representation and financial support,” Bradley said.

“The decision is unfortunate, not just on ramifications regarding redistricting,” Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.) said in a statement in Washington. “When you skew the numbers, you skew the formula for federal payments.”

The undercount of minorities might have an unexpected and devastating impact on health care programs and medical research. Since the design and funding of many health programs are based in part on estimates of disease rates among segments of the population, it will be impossible to know what those disease rates are without accurate breakdowns of the population, researchers have said.

“Californians deserve a fair count--they didn’t get it, said Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif). “Secretary Mosbacher has done a profound disservice to Californians and the nation. Without a statistical adjustment to reflect accurately the population of California, the state will lose out on much-needed federal aid, lack the proper level of representation in the House of Representatives, and state Legislature redistricting plans will be based on inaccurate information.”

Rep. Cox conceded that the decision would deprive California of a House seat. He said that “on the other hand, there has to be some finality, given that the alternative is an adjustment that itself would likely be litigated.”

Lawsuits also are likely to come from minority groups, maintaining that any attempt to draw new district lines based on 1990 Census figures should be considered illegal since they are based on inaccurate ethnic data.

“Minorities will simply not be accurately and fairly represented because of this decision,” said Linda Wong, executive director of California’s Achievement Council, a nonprofit organization designed to boost the academic performance of minority students.

The Count Remains the Same

Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher on Monday rejected a revision of the national Census figures, which would have meant more state and federal funds for some Orange County cities. Figures shown are those released for Orange County and its cities with populations of more than 100,000.

Official Proposed % Increase Count Revision From Original Orange County 2,410,556 2,469,000 +2.4 Anaheim 266,406 278,000 +4.4 Fullerton 114,144 117,000 +2.5 Garden Grove 143,050 146,000 +2.1 Huntington Beach 181,519 184,000 +1.4 Irvine 110,330 112,000 +1.5 Orange 110,658 113,000 +2.1 Santa Ana 293,742 310,000 +5.5

Note: The Census Bureau has not released revision figures for cities with populations under 100,000.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau