Lawmakers Push Residents To Fill Out Forms On Census Day

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4) - April 1 is Census Day as public officials urged everyone to fill out their census forms even though the deadline is now in August.

Governor Jared Polis took time at his COVID-19 response briefing to encourage everyone to fill out their form at census.gov.

"It's not like you have a lot of other things to do," he said

The governor called it a civic duty to participate. "It's very important. It's much more than some number about how many people live in Colorado that demographers look at .

"It's actually about how much money Colorado gets and Colorado families get. It means billions of dollars over the next ten years in federal funds for projects.

"For building roads, if you care about traffic, fill it out, to healthcare because we're competing with other states for critical resources.

"Across the United States there's about $880 billion that's allocated just based on the census count. That's about $13 billion a year in Colorado.

"It's not only about making sure we are politically represented in Colorado and the voices of Coloradans are heard. It's really about making sure Colorado gets it fair share.

"So pause your Netflix or Apple TV for just a few minutes and fill out your census form."

The governor said it took his family about six minutes to fill out theirs.