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Villarreal Offers Lukewarm Praise For Perry’s Belated Census Actions
Check out this post: http://capitolannex.com/2010/03/10/villarreal-offers-lukewarm-praise-for-perrys-belated-census-actions/) State Rep. Mike Villarreal (D-San Antonio) issued a press release Wednesday offering “lukewarm praise” to Texas Governor Rick Perry for appointing Secretary of State Hope Andrade as the state’s census ambassador. From the press release:
“I trust that Hope Andrade will make the most out of the limited time she has to do her job,” said Villarreal, who was the first elected official to publicly urge the Governor to take action on the census. In the coming days, the U.S. Census Bureau will mail census forms to households throughout Texas. Between April and July, census workers will visit households that do not mail back their questionnaires. In October 2009, Rep. Villarreal wrote to Governor Perry urging him to establish a statewide Complete Count Committee and direct state agencies to support census participation. He has not received a response. A study commissioned by the U.S. Census Monitoring Board found that approximately 373,000 Texans were not counted in 2000, costing Texas over $1 billion in federal support for education, transportation, health care and other services over the course of the decade. “Texas can bring home a billion dollars more from the federal government if everyone is counted. The Governor’s delay hurts our chances. Once again showing one’s ability to campaign has nothing to do with one’s ability to govern,” noted Villarreal.The sad thing here is that Perry should have done something when Villarreal first contacted him about the census. In fact, even if Villarreal hadn’t contacted him, Perry should have led all state agencies to take more proactive action about the census on his own. An accurate census count is vital to the state getting its fair share of federal dollars in the coming years. In spite of that, Perry waits until a week before census forms go in the mail across most of the state to actually do anything about it. It is typical of his “designed to fail but look good while doing it” administration.
