
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 12, 1990                   TAG: 9004120569
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A13   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

MINORITY COUNT SPURS LAWSUIT/ N.Y. SAYS CENSUS NUMBERS TOO LOW

New York City and state sued the federal government on Wednesday in an effort to boost an expected undercount of minorities in the 1990 census, which they claim uses "biased and unconstitutional guidelines."

The legal action was joined by the cities of Chicago, Los Angeles and Houston; Dade County, Fla.; the state of California; the U.S. Conference of Mayors; the League of Cities; the NAACP and the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Mayor David Dinkins, calling the undercount of urban minorities "a national disgrace," said that problem and other factors would mean "cities across the country will once again lose hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid and dozens of seats in Congress."

"Yet the national government - from the White House to the Commerce Department to the Census Bureau - seems to want to pay it no mind. They have gotten away with statistical malfeasance for 200 years and figure they can get away with it for another 10."

The lawsuit, filed against the Department of Commerce in U.S. District Court, asks Judge Joseph McLaughlin to invalidate the Census Bureau's "biased and unconstitutional guidelines" for adjusting the expected undercount of minorities.

Around the country, more than 2.3 million of the 88.5 million census forms mailed out to households could not be delivered, the mayor said. In addition, 250,000 of them designated for delivery to residents in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens had been kept in the bureau's Indiana warehouse, he said.

The city maintains it was undercounted by 450,000 people in the 1980 census and subsequently lost one congressman, one state senator and one state assemblyman as well as $657 million in federal aid.

In a statement, Census Director Barbara Everitt Bryant called the timing of the lawsuit "particularly unfortunate."

"Today we are stretching all available resources to ensure that every American is counted in the census. There is time enough later to litigate the adequacy of this effort," she said.

Former city Corporation Counsel Peter Zimroth, who is serving as attorney on the lawsuit, said the city and state are seeking to overturn guidelines set forth by the Commerce Department last month concerning the accuracy of this year's count.

The Commerce Department has claimed the right to decide whether the census' raw figures are right or whether a post-census survey sampling should be conducted.

by CNB