Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton says he doesn’t believe the U.S. Census numbers that came out last week are accurate.
The numbers show Bloomington went from 80,405 to 79,168 - a loss of about 1,200 people in the past decade.
“All the years since have seen us growing to 86,000 – adding 6,000 people. All the evidence we have from school enrollments to taxes to all kinds of different measures indicate growths,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton says he blames taking a census when Indiana University closed campus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s really important that we try to work with the census bureau and the powers that be to reflect in particular this university community that that was really an anomaly that spring of 2020.”
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Federal funding for grants or programs, such as housing and urban development money, is based on population. Hamilton says a lower census count could mean losing millions of dollars through federal funding allocations.
“If we missed one out of 300 people in a census count, that could add up to a $1 million of loss over ten years.”
Hamilton says there are formal appeals procedures, and in some cases litigation, to dispute the numbers, and the city is looking into all means for an appeal.
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