I wanted to take this chance to warn all Western New Yorkers about mailings that appear to be from the U.S. Census Bureau but are actually scams hoping to attract your attention or capture your personal information.

Nationwide, the Census Bureau has received complaints about deceptive mailings that arrive in enveloped marked “Census” and include a “census tracking code.” In reality, many of these mailings are not affiliated with the Census Bureau. So far, none of these scams have yet appeared in Western New York.

Official Census Bureau documents will never ask for your full social security number, money or a donation, PIN codes, passwords or similar access information for credit cards, banks or other financial accounts. Also, the Bureau never sends requests on behalf of a political party. More information on these scams is available here.

Despite the attention-grabbing scams I urge you to fill out your 2010 Census forms which are already arriving in the mail.

It’s no secret that our population in Western New York has gone down, which makes it even more important that everyone of us fills out this vital form so New York isn’t left out in the cold. Our schools, libraries, community centers and so many other important programs all rely on Census results.

The results of the Census will determine how more than $445 billion in federal funds – for everything from schools to roads to senior centers – are distributed to state, local, and tribal governments over the next decade. It also affects representation in Congress and the Electoral College.

The 2000 Census had a 67 percent national response rate, with an estimated undercount of more than 3 million people. According to a recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers report, areas most affected by Census undercounting lose about $2,913 per uncounted person in federal funding.

On March 10, the House of Representatives voted unanimously to pass legislation that would protect the integrity of the constitutionally mandated United States census and prohibit deceptive mail practices that attempt to exploit the decennial census. I voted in favor of the Prevent Deceptive Census Look Alike Mailings Act.

You may have already received census forms in the mail. If you haven’t received your census form in the mail by April 1, please call one of my offices at:

Buffalo: (716) 853-5813
Niagara Falls: (716) 282-1274
Rochester: (585) 232-4850