April 1, 2010 is National Census Day, when all census forms should be returned to the US Census Bureau.  The federal government relies on census data to determine the number of congressional seats each state is entitled to and to allocate roughly $400 billion dollars in federal funds for health care programs, roads, and schools. 

Nationally, about 52 percent of Americans who’ve received census forms have mailed them back already, but according to the U.S. Census bureau, the rate in California is about 49 percent.  If you don’t send your form in, you can expect a visit to your home from a census worker sometime between April and July. 

California Census Director Ditas Katague makes an excellent point when she says:  “If you think about April 15th as tax day, when all Californians send money back to Washington D.C., you have to think about April 1 as the one time, once a decade, that Californians can demand their dollars back from Washington by simply taking ten minutes to fill out their census forms.”