BY JENNIFER BAILEY
DANVILLE — $131.45.
That might not seem like a lot of money, but that’s the amount of money the city loses in just income, motor fuel and state-use tax for each person not counted locally in the 2010 Census.
This amounts to about $470,000 annually.
And this doesn’t even include funding for local transportation, schools, libraries, medical facilities, social service agencies and other per capita funding.
Looking statewide, for every person not counted, Illinois will lose $12,000 during the next 10 years in federal funding.
The Danville Public library, for example, receives a state-funded per capita grant that is tied to the census count. The grant helps purchase books and other materials. Usually the library receives about $34,000 to $41,000.
This year and next, the library will see a 16 percent decrease in the rate applied to the local census number because of the state’s financial crisis.
By now, most residents should have received a 10-question census form in the mail.
National Census Day is April 1. Residents should send back completed forms by this date.
From April to July, census takers will visit households that did not return a form by mail.
The census is used for reapportioning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and the distribution of more than $300 billion in federal dollars every year to state and local governments (for roads, parks, housing, schools and public safety).
The new census numbers also will come into play with redrawing a new city ward map.
As has happened in the past, the city’s population grew northward.
But under the city’s 1987 federal court consent decree that established the city’s mayor-aldermanic form of government, city officials must take the minority population into account. In each ward where minorities reside, minorities must make up 53 percent of that ward’s population.
Ward 1 has been the only ward that meets the standards for minority representation and has had two elected minority aldermen.
Any population shifts also could affect designated police patrol areas, Mayor Scott Eisenhauer added.
Even though population has decreased, police response calls have increased around 20 percent from 10 years ago, he estimates.
Other city funding dependent upon census numbers: Danville Area Transportation Study, corporate replacement tax and other formula-based funding, in addition to Community Development Block Grant funding for home rehabilitation and economic development funding.
DATS
Danville Area Transportation Study Director Adam Aull said he thinks the city is “probably sitting OK,” with future DATS funding.
“I think we will be sitting pretty snuggly right in line where those numbers should be …,” Aull said.
If 2010 Census numbers come in lower than 2000 Census numbers, the Danville area could again cease to be an urbanized area. Estimates show a stagnant/slightly declining growth rate in the area.
Federal funding for the DATS staff and planning would stop without an urbanized designation.
The city was renamed an urbanized area after the 2000 Census and new guidelines. The designation comes from the U.S. Census Bureau and is determined by a mathematical formula.
Danville lost its urbanized area ranking in the 1990s due to population losses determined after the 1990 census. The first Metropolitan Planning Organization in 1980 covered Danville through Westville, Aull said. An urbanized area is defined as having a population of more than 50,000.
By picking up Catlin and stretching south along Route 1 to Georgetown, Danville’s urbanized area population now totals about 53,000.
The urbanized area includes Danville, Tilton, Catlin, Westville and Georgetown.
Danville’s population in 2000 also was boosted by the prison being annexed into the city.
Aull said without the designation of the DATS Metropolitan Planning Organization, about $180,000 per year would not be given to the DATS program. The remainder of the budget — annually about $253,000, which includes two full-time employees and an intern — is local match.
The federal dollars are spent on planning activities and projects such as: the Fairchild Subway study, Catlin alternative corridor feasibility study, Route 1 Access Enhancement, Danville Mass Transit transfer zone study and Westgate Land Use Alternative Study. The city is the financial agent that allows DATS to operate.
If census numbers remain about the same, and keep the area above 50,000 population, the MPO will continue as it has been and could expand to some smaller unincorporated areas, such as Batestown, as local officials see fit.
Aull said if any of the DATS towns fall below their density per square mile threshold, then they could be eliminated from the MPO area.
Urban Areas, like Hoopeston, are those areas that have urban characteristics, but are not Urbanized Areas.
FYI
The 2008 population estimate for Danville is 32,248, and for Vermilion County it’s 80,680.
In 2000, the population in Danville was 33,904 and in Vermilion County it was 83,919.
Census 2000 National Participation Rate: 72 percent; Danville's response rate: 66 percent; and Vermilion County’s: 70 percent.
