Census pre-mailing a waste of money?

FORT WAYNE, IND. (WANE) - “When you receive your Census, please fill it out and mail it in promptly" is what a mass mailing from the government says, just a week before the 2010 Census comes out. NewsChannel 15 takes a look at your complaints that it's a waste of taxpayer money.

Getting people to fill it out is a major undertaking each decade; but is the latest effort by the government a waste of taxpayer money, you’ve been asking.

A TV campaign has been airing for awhile now, but it's a letter in the mail that most everyone has or soon will receive that's ticked off quite a few people.

It simply says to be prepared to get a census packet in the mail next week.

"I think it’s a waste of money. If it’s coming in one week, just send it. That's a lot of postage," one Fort Wayne resident said.

"It's a big waste of money, especially when we have this bad economy. They could do it by phone call or email," said another.

Advertising professionals are also surprised.

"When you look at the cost of the census, I'm really kind of startled that with today's technology, why would someone send a traditional post letter to say that the survey's coming," said Larry Wardlaw of the Asher Agency.

That's because the extra push may be better used after the census has been mailed.

"To send a letter prior to seems to be, in my opinion, a waste of marketing dollars," Larry Wardlaw said.

But the Census Director says it’s just an extra push now to cut costs later.

"All these things we're doing is to save the taxpayer money," says U. S. Census Director Robert Groves.

There is a substantial mailing discount since it's a mass-produced letter, which the government says is all aimed at making sure everyone's counted and planned for.

"To get your fair share and your community's fair share, participating in the census is the way to do it," Groves said.

The government does say the money spent on the letter would be better than the $3,000 it estimates it costs just to send someone to your front door.

The 2000 census had a 72% return rate, and officials are hoping to better that this time around. To do that, they are advertising the census and are converting it into more than two dozen different languages.