Consensus 2010

I'm dying to hear how much hype there is in other states over the 2010 Census.  I don't remember seeing droves of commercials, flyers, and people out urging you to fill out the census form in Wisconsin in 2000, but then again, I was wrapping up my Junior year in high school, preparing for a trip to Spain, and hanging out with a new guy I liked (who I ended up marrying five years later).  In other words, I wasn't paying attention.

Here in North Dakota, the 2010 Census is a BIG deal.  Ads and flyers are everywhere, urging you to "please, please fill out the form and mail it back - our very existence as a state depends on it" (or something to that effect).  I had my census form hand-delivered to my doorstep by a volunteer Saturday.  I figure this over-the-top public awareness campaign is much more pronounced in North Dakota, where the population truly has been steadily declining and the poor state literally needs everyone to be counted in order to keep it on the federal funding map.

Given that we own a house in Minnesota, live in North Dakota, and are moving to Kansas in May, Nathan and I were pretty confused about where and when we need to reply.  I really, really wanted to give our +2 population count to North Dakota for several reasons:

1. I really do consider this my home, despite what my tax return and permanent address say.
2. You get a lot more bang for your census buck out here - adding two more people here is a much larger percentage of the population than in Minnesota!
3. North Dakota has been just plain nice to us.  Not only were we allowed to vote in the 2008 primaries (just by living here for 30 days and signing our street address on the paper form in the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame entryway), while Minnesota completely shut us out with their "must be present to vote" caucus system, they BY FAR charge us the least amount in taxes to live here.  Consider this: given the same yearly salary for our family in 2009, Minnesota charged us $5000 to live there, Kansas would have charged us $4022 for being full-year residents, and North Dakota's looking really good at $1699.  There are so many reasons to love North Dakota!

You can imagine how happy I was to find out that the date for which you count where you live is April 1, 2010!  So, we have a consensus for the census.  Without a doubt, I can say, "Yes!  I am living in North Dakota on April 1, 2010.  Sign me up for funding for that new stop sign on the corner of 1st & 2nd street.  North Dakota, you deserve it!"