Census data arrives in Texas

03/12/2001

Associated Press

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AUSTIN – Texas has received its detailed population figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, an official at the Texas State Data Center at Texas A&M University said today.

The governor's office would not immediately confirm receipt of the figures.

The data center helps process the census results for the Legislature's use to redraw political boundaries. The material includes data on population changes in Texas' 254 counties and thousands of cities, plus breakdowns of the state's racial and ethnic composition.

It was not immediately known when the 2000 census figures would be made public.

The figures were expected to show a state of 20.9 million people continuing to grow more suburban and Hispanic. Previously released figures already cemented Texas' status as the second-largest state, surpassing New York.

State lawmakers immediately will begin analyzing the numbers as they redraw districts for U.S. Congress, the Legislature and state Board of Education. One task will be to add two new congressional districts, which likely will be shoehorned near metropolitan areas.

The biennial Legislature's regular session ends May 28, though lawmakers can go into special session to draw congressional lines. If the state House and Senate cannot meet the deadline for redrawing their own districts, a board comprised mostly of Republican statewide officeholders will take over.

"And nobody wants that," said Rep. Delwin Jones, a Lubbock Republican and chairman of the House Redistricting Committee.

The next congressional and legislative general elections are in 2002.

The information Texas officials has received comes from the government's actual headcount conducted last year. Commerce Secretary Don Evans determined those results were more likely to be accurate than statistically adjusted data designed to compensate for undercounts.

However, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates it missed 3.3 million people nationwide, mostly minorities, after performing statistical sampling. It gave no state-by-state undercount estimates.

Undercounted areas stand to lose political clout and federal aid dollars. Border cities and metropolises like Houston and Dallas believe the 1990 undercount cost them millions of dollars.