Ruling on Census Is Deplored

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision barring the Census Bureau from using statistical sampling to adjust next year’s census was assailed Monday by local officials, who believe it means that Latinos, blacks and other minorities in California and Los Angeles will be undercounted and denied political representation in Washington.

“What a horrible decision,” said Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles). “It could mean the loss of two congressional districts, maybe an undercount of 1 million people,” he said. “This is a denial of representation to California” that will affect the poor and minorities the most.

The high court’s 5-4 decision means that sampling cannot be used to adjust the census head count upward for people who officials say may have been missed by the standard counting methods. The decision applies narrowly to the reapportioning of House seats among the states after the census.

Moreover, if the Census Bureau is prevented by Congress from using the sampling technique to eliminate undercounting, Villaraigosa said, California could lose $3 billion in federal assistance over the next decade.

Because of that risk, both the city and county of Los Angeles joined with the Clinton administration in pushing for use of the sampling technique, which is widely employed in polling and marketing surveys. But House Republicans oppose use of sampling. Some fear that adding more poor people and minorities to the government’s population count will create more safe districts for Democrats.

County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, a Republican, called the court’s decision “a major defeat for those attempting to sabotage the political process.” He said the outcome was “a victory for the Constitution,” which calls for the once-a-decade head count to be used to apportion House seats among the states. The number of House seats also affects the number of electoral votes a state casts in presidential elections.

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan was in Curitiba, Brazil, on Monday viewing that city’s system of busways and had not seen the decision. At City Hall, a spokesman for the mayor said the court decision makes it “crucial, now more than ever, for all Angelenos to make sure they are counted in the upcoming census.”

Riordan’s spokesman said an accurate count of the city’s population is critical because of the impact it can have on distribution of state and federal funds and representation in Washington. The city and county are both gearing up campaigns to encourage Los Angeles residents to complete the census form.

County Supervisor Gloria Molina said the court ruling will have a major impact on California and Los Angeles County, because minorities and immigrants are more likely to be undercounted. “Every census taken in the last 40 years has blatantly undercounted minorities,” Molina said. “This trend must end through the use of sampling, which is a scientifically sound method to ensure an accurate count.”

Congressman Julian Dixon (D-Los Angeles) said he was puzzled by the court’s allowing the use of less than accurate population figures to determine the number of House seats allocated to each state.

Dixon said he fears that Republican congressional leaders will not provide the Census Bureau with the funds needed to do the sampling, which follows the traditional approach of interviewing residents in person or through questionnaires in the mail.

Congressman Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) said an undercount would have the greatest impact on low-income, inner-city neighborhoods and rural areas where the census “always is going to miss a lot of folks.”

Becerra said Latinos, blacks and anyone who happens to be poor or more transient is likely to be missed. He said high-growth areas like the Inland Empire may also be undercounted because the population is so mobile.

Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn said the struggle over the census has far-reaching consequences. “Los Angeles is impacted severely by this decision in the sense that our numbers are not going to be counted,” he said.

Hahn said the Census Bureau found that 144,000 Los Angeles residents were missed in the 1990 census, an undercount of 3.8%. And he warned that the court’s ruling would cause a similar result next year.

The city attorney and likely candidate for mayor in two years said the census issue seems to be “a partisan fight. It’s about fear that if you give more credit to people living in cities than in suburbs, that somehow that shifts the political balance of power.”