The Aurora City Council is looking at an overall $728,000 amendment to the 2024 budget that includes money to put toward a special census.
The council is set to vote on the budget amendment at its meeting Tuesday evening.
The amendment includes a number of items, among them a $200,000 addition for a special census the city is seeking from the U.S. Census Bureau in March 2025.
City officials want to get a count they believe to be closer to reality than the about 180,000 population figure the Census Bureau gave after the 2020 decennial census.
Officials said getting closer to what they consider the real count, as much as 197,000 and possibly 200,000, would stem the tide of lost tax revenue the city has experienced since 2020, as much as almost $11 million as of the end of June.
The City Council earlier this year approved a memorandum of agreement with the Census Bureau to conduct the special census for a little over $1 million. The $200,000 is being added because of additional costs, city officials said.
Chris Minick, the city’s chief financial officer, has said the new count would only need to find a little more than 1,000 more residents to pay for the special census. It’s worth it, he said, because the city has already lost $10.9 million, and by the earliest a special census could be done, that figure will be up to more than $17 million.
The lost revenue comes because the city gets things like income tax distribution, local use taxes, motor fuel tax funds, transportation license renewal money and marijuana dispensary money, based on population.
The city loses about $4.3 million a year due to the possible undercount, which would mean $43 million for the full 10 years between 2020 and 2030.
The special census would take place in all or part of eight of the city’s 10 wards. It would encompass parts of 35 census tracts in the city, seven of them entire tracts.
The count focuses on areas on the East Side where officials believe the Census Bureau missed people, or missed new construction.
Local officials are gearing up again for a concerted local effort during the special census.
slord@tribpub.com
