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Aurora recently established its Complete Count Committee to work to make sure Aurora gets an accurate count of its population in the 2020 U.S. census.

The City Council recently voted unanimously to establish the committee, and to accept some state money to partially fund it. City officials will seek more money to fully fund the group.

If it seems too early — almost a year ahead of time — to begin the process for 2020, Aurora officials have said it is not.

Dan Barreiro, Neighborhood Development director and the person heading up the census push for the city, has said the city has several populations that can be hard to get exact numbers on, including senior citizens, small children and Hispanics.

And it will be even harder next year because of the way the count is originating from Washington, D.C. The U.S. Census Bureau will send cards in the mail to citizens, who will be instructed to go to a website to fill out information to be counted.

Aurora voted to form the committee to make sure residents take that extra step.

The Complete Count Committee will have 25 members representing such groups as school districts, townships, the park district, other governmental agencies and private nonprofits to come up with strategies on how to get Aurorans to answer needed questions to get a true population count.

The City Council actually approved two resolutions, one establishing the Complete Count Committee, and the other accepting $87,575 from the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office to help fund the committee.

The city is getting another $40,000 in grant money for the committee. The city partnered with United Way for that grant because it needed to go through a nonprofit.

That would total almost $130,000 in grant funds. City officials have estimated the committee would need about $160,000 altogether.

Barreiro has said city officials were notified there is more money available from the federal government for the project, which officials will try to get.

Aurora officials have said the practical matter of getting an accurate count for the city is the shared funds from the state — income tax, sales tax and gas tax money — which are doled out based on population.

There are federal funds, such as Community Development Block Grant money, which also are based on per capita numbers.

Officials have said the city gets an average of about $250 a person in shared tax money, which would mean a count that is, for example, 10 percent low, would cost the city $5 million.

There is a statewide Complete Count Committee which Aurora partners with, and there likely will be Complete Count committees in individual jurisdictions. Kane County is forming one and DuPage County recently formed its committee.

Aurora has gained about 40,000 residents in each of the past two decennial censuses. The last estimate of Aurora’s population is about 201,000 people.