Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin Tuesday night repeated criticism of the U.S. Census Bureau he made last week, and reasserted that the city is “absolutely pursuing a special census recount” in the wake of recent estimates released by the bureau saying Aurora has lost population.
But he added that “the process to do so has been arduous at best” and said the bureau has been forcing the city to “jump through hoops and cut through red tape in the special census process.”
His comments came after estimates released by the Census Bureau last week said that Aurora lost about 3,000 people between 2020 and 2023.
The numbers are part of estimates the bureau does from time to time in the 10 years between decennial official counts. The bureau said Aurora’s population went from about 180,000 in 2020 to about 177,000 in 2023.
After the 2020 decennial census, the Census Bureau said the city lost about 17,000 people, and went from about 197,000 residents in 2010 to about 180,000 in 2020. City officials have contested those results almost from the moment they were released.
Irvin released a statement about the new census estimates last week, and repeated what he had to say at this week’s City Council Committee of the Whole meeting.
He said he was “extremely disappointed, thoroughly disgusted and ultimately dismayed” that the bureau would make estimates based on what he believes is an undercount from the decennial census of 2020.
“It should cease making estimates until it rectifies the results of the 2020 census by working …with impacted cities like Aurora, Illinois,” he said.
The city has steadfastly insisted that the city was dramatically undercounted in 2020. It said at the time that it would go through the process of a special census as soon as possible.
City officials applied in March 2023 for the recount, the earliest any entity could apply. They thought that special census would be taking place by now, and amended the 2023 budget to include $800,000 to pay for it.
Aurora officials have said the cost would be worth it, because the lower population count in the 2020 census is costing the city about $3.6 million a year – or about $36 million over 10 years – in lost revenue from different tax and federal program allocations.
Things like sales tax from the state, and motor fuel taxes from the state and federal governments, are based on population.
“Aurora has lost millions of dollars per year since the 2020 census and will continue to lose millions …” Irvin said.
The Beacon-News attempted to contact the U.S. Census Bureau through an email address on its website, but did not hear back.
slord@tribpub.com