Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz today joined Vice-President of Community Impact at the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo  Cara Matteliano, Buffalo and Erie County Public Library Director Mary Jean Jakubowski, Director of Program Development at the Belle Center Jack Norton, personnel from the county Department of Environment and Planning, and representatives of numerous partner agencies and organizations at the Belle Center in Buffalo as he signed an Executive Order creating a Complete Count Committee (“the Committee”) for the 2020 Census. A key component of the County Executive’s 2019 State of the County address, the Committee will be tasked with supporting the goals and ideals of the 2020 Census disseminating 2020 Census information, and encouraging all Erie County residents to participate in events and initiatives that will raise the overall awareness of the 2020 Census and increase participation.

“The census is the best way our government has of determining not only the number of people here, but where they are, who they are, and a variety of other information about them. Very importantly, an accurate census count has very direct financial impacts on Erie County,” said Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz. “Every person who is not counted in the census represents a loss of $2,600 a year in federal funding for Erie County, every year for ten years. That’s a loss of $26,000 in federal funding over ten years if just one person is missed in the census. If 1,000 residents are not counted, Erie County loses $26 million dollars in federal resources over 10 years. It also means loss of representation in Congress to other areas that are more accurately counted.”

Poloncarz continued, “We owe it to ourselves to take every measure to guarantee a fair census, a count that correctly reports every man, woman, and child in Erie County. To do otherwise is to shortchange ourselves and cut off our fair share of funding to which we are entitled and weaken the representation we are due. I thank the partners who are joining us in this important endeavor and look forward to getting the Committee moving on its task.”

The committee will be co-chaired by Cara Matteliano of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo and Julie Barry, Deputy Commissioner of Planning from the Erie County Department of Environment and Planning. It will include nonprofits, community leaders, educators, librarians, business leaders, experts, religious and faith leaders, and any other organization or stakeholder that will support the Committee’s mission.

The Executive Order can be read here.

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