State May Offer U.S. $30 Million for Census

The speaker of the California Assembly came to the capital this week with an offer the federal government couldn’t refuse: $30 million in state money to improve the 2000 census for what is probably the nation’s hardest-to-count state population.

The expenditure proposed by Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), if approved by the state Legislature and Gov. Gray Davis, would dwarf contributions that other states are making toward the crucial decennial population count.

Villaraigosa disclosed the proposal Tuesday in an interview with The Times, one day after unveiling it privately at a meeting with surprised but enthusiastic Census Bureau officials here.

“We’re serious about the census, about the outreach, about making sure everybody’s counted,” Villaraigosa said in the interview.

The proposal underscores the serious political and fiscal stakes for California as the Clinton administration starts to kick its census machinery into high gear. The population count will begin April 1.

In 1990, California had a larger “undercount”--residents who were missed by the census, generally from poor and minority communities--than any other state and has suffered for it by losing additional representation in the House of Representatives and hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid.

Although California’s official 1990 population was recorded as 29.7 million, experts say that figure omitted more than 800,000 residents who either failed to answer the federal request for information or could not be reached.

To help prevent a repeat of that shortfall, Villaraigosa said, the state should spend $30 million to get the word out about the census through such outlets as motor vehicle offices, tax mailings, public housing offices, job placement offices and even Los Angeles schools.

Another possibility is to give fourth-graders T-shirts to publicize the population count among parents in low-income neighborhoods.

Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt said Tuesday that he knows of no other state planning such a massive effort.

“There’s no doubt it will make a significant contribution to the overall quality of the California census,” he said.

California may reap at least one immediate benefit from Villaraigosa’s proposal. Prewitt said he plans to transfer some census staff to Sacramento from a regional office in Seattle to help coordinate the state and federal outreach. California’s main census office is in Los Angeles.

The spending request is likely to get a friendly reception in Sacramento, where Democrats control the Legislature and the governor’s office.

But state Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco), also in Washington, said he had not yet heard about the plan in detail. “I’m supportive of all citizens being counted,” he added, “and California getting its fair share of federal funds.”

Davis’ press secretary could not be reached for comment.

Villaraigosa said that during his five-day trip to Washington, he has met with or plans to meet with a variety of senior administration officials and members of the state’s congressional delegation. The speaker, for example, was seeking Energy Department funds to help purchase low-polluting buses for Los Angeles County’s public transit system and assurances from federal immigration officials of fair treatment for immigrants applying for U.S. citizenship.

He also met privately with Vice President Al Gore, whom Villaraigosa is supporting for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000. No prominent Republicans were on the speaker’s itinerary.

Villaraigosa’s census proposal comes amid nationwide controversy over the 2000 tally. The Arizona government, controlled by Republicans, recently enacted a law to reject any census data that include figures compiled using a controversial method known as statistical sampling.

The idea behind sampling is to adjust the traditional head count with estimates derived from a follow-up nationwide survey of 300,000 households--the largest such survey the government has ever attempted. Republicans generally oppose sampling; Democrats, backed by experts from the National Research Council, generally favor it.

Courts have ruled that the federal government cannot use sampling to generate population figures for the purpose of divvying up seats in the House among the 50 states. But the Census Bureau plans to use it to generate figures for other purposes, including the distribution of federal funds and the redrawing of congressional and legislative district boundaries within states.

*Times staff writer Richard Simon contributed to this story.