![File photo Lakewood, NJ - [photo: Laura Pedrick for The New York Times]](http://www.vinnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/lak41.jpg "lak41")
Lakewood, NJ – The Census Bureau kicks off its $300 million campaign Monday to prod, coax and cajole the nation’s more than 300 million residents to fill out their once-a-decade census forms. The bureau will mail out the 10-question forms to about 120 million households in March.
Every 10 years, the United States takes an official census and uses the numbers to allot congressmen to states, assign seats in the Electoral College and distribute an estimated $400 billion in federal funds.
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On April 1, the U.S. Census Bureau will take a snapshot of residents, including undocumented aliens, prisoners, college students in the town where they go to school, residents of homeless shelters and members of traveling circuses, who will count as residents where they are performing that day.
Lakewood officials hope not to repeat the town’s Census 2000 designation as a “”hard to count zone.”
Township Committeeman Menashe Miller said the committee has formed a “”Complete Count Committee” to make sure that doesn’t happen.
“We’re trying everything in our ability to make sure everyone gets counted,” he said. Miller is the governing body’s liaison to the committee.
The census committee, he said, is comprised of members from the township’s various communities and demographic groups.
Notices sent home with schoolchildren and phone calls to seniors who winter in the south … reminding them that they should complete their census forms in Lakewood … are just two of the ways the town is getting the word out, Miller said.
“We want to let people know that no matter where you are living, in the woods, in a shack, in your car, we want you counted,” he said. “”We want to know that you exist, and the federal government wants to know that you exist.”
How about an accurate budget census? Like an audit, so that we the people can scrutinize where all our hard earned tax dollars are going! We want to know if its in the cars, shacks or in the woods.
why would u want the govt to have ALL your personal info at his fingertips , including names addresses phone numbers etc. scary huh!
The VAAD, Igud, LAC, says if we get Lakewood’s count above 100,000 they are considered a CITY. They can get additional funding, build more housing on less land….Yom-Tov-in-der-vochen.
During the last census, there were some who raised questions about whether frumme yidden are permitted to participate in a “census” that is not done in accordance with the torah-based rules governing how hasehm ordered the counting of the members of each shevet of bnai yisroel. Have those issues been resolved since we are living in galus and the census provides an important means to get welfare money for Lakewood and Monsey.
Is It halachicly Allowed To Count Jews? What About Ayin hora?
Nobody’s counting Jews as a group; they’re just counting all people who happen to live somewhere. There’s no way that’s ossur.
And there’s no reason to fear the government knowing the number of members in your family.
Is it halachically approved to ask stupid questions? Is there anyone with a bit of brains left?
did u know that if u don’t fill out the form u could get fines and the feds will be on your case?
Funny how I have never gotten a census form to fill out, not this year, not ten years ago… I wonder who they pick to fill it out…
#11
Yep, it’s the law. On the other hand, there are only like five or six questions – basic stuff your mail carrier probably knows. So do your town (and yourself) a favor – fill out the form and mail it back. With around $400 billion in funds to be distributed, it’s worth the effort.
#12 – where do you live? If you want a form, I think you can go online to the census people and get one, or maybe go to your local public library.
If Acorn as ANYTHING to do with the census, I will not participate.