Mayor John Quinn promoted the 2010 Census at the city council meeting last night.

For those who are unaware, the census is an official enumeration of the population with details as to age, sex and occupation given to residents every ten years.

“The government has put in an obscene amount of money into the census campaign,” Quinn said. “This is not some sort of government plot of any kind.”

According to CSMonitor.com, this year the government has lined up a $130 million campaign and a nation wide road tour to encourage people to mail their census forms back. If every household mails back their form (approximately 120 million have been mailed out) the government could save up to $1.5 billlion in follow-up visits.

One of the shortest questionnaires in history, the 2010 census has only ten questions, which should take ten minutes to fill out according to the Census Bureau, and only costs 42 cents to mail back.

College students who live away from home and military personnel should not be counted on household surveys. Federal law penalizes those who do not fill out a form with a $100 fine, and a $500 fine for those who provide false information.

According to Article 1 section 2 of the Constitution, congressional seats will be distributed proportionately among states. The census data will determine how more than $400 billion in federal money is distributed from roads, to schools and healthcare. It also determines how many lawmakers each state will have in the US House of Representatives.

CSMonitor.com provides information on which state gets the most federal dollars. Most of the money goes to rural areas.

“It is important that we work hard to make sure that everyone is accounted for.” Quinn said. ” We hope people will cooperate because we are trying to receive as much funding for our city as we can. The funding we get will have to last us for the next ten years until the next census in 2020.”