Mississippians who haven’t submitted their 2020 census information have until 11:59 tonight to do so. Tuesday, The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to end the count early. That, after a lower court extended the deadline to October 31. Mississippi Census 2020 reports the response rate for the state is 60 percent as compared to the national rate of 66. Kayla Kane with the Southern Poverty Law Center is following the census data.
“The State of Mississippi is currently lagging across the nation and when a certain state lags that also means that their federal funding is going to lag, their political power is going to lag, and they’re not getting the right proportion of money or political power that they should be getting,” said Kane.
The population count is used by the federal government to fund states for education, roads, hospitals, and other services. For every child or adult not included in the count, Mississippi loses $5,000 which could add up to millions per year. Republican Senator Joey Fillingane of Sumrall says the state relies on federal support. For instance, for every one dollar the state pays for Medicaid, Mississippi receives $3.
“It’s important not only for the state government of Mississippi to make sure everyone is counted, it’s also very important for the localities, for the municipalities, for the counties, a lot of their dollars are also divided up based on the number of person’s living in that particular geographical area,” said Fillingane.
A census is conducted every ten years.
