Lawyers for State Senate Sue U.S. to Get New Census Data

Lawyers representing the state Senate announced the filing of a lawsuit to compel the U.S. Department of Commerce to release corrected census data that would add more than 1 million people to the 1990 tally in California.

Such an increase in population would affect the drawing of political boundaries and, according to city officials, raise the level of financial aid available to Los Angeles and other California cities.

Last week, the Assembly filed a similar suit against the Commerce Department, which oversees the U.S. Census Bureau. Moreover, lawyers representing Los Angeles and California are pressing a third suit, along with several other states and cities, aimed at forcing the secretary of commerce to use corrected census data to adjust the 1990 count. Nationwide, the corrected data would raise the 1990 tally by more than 5 million people.

The corrected data grew out of a special survey of about 160,000 households that was conducted at the same time as last year’s head count. The survey, which has always been controversial, was conceived as a way of improving the census. Traditionally, the census has undercounted the population, particularly in large cities where minorities, non-English-speaking immigrants and transient poor people have proved difficult to locate.

The survey offered a novel means of measuring population by scientifically sampling various population groups. However, Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher decided earlier this month not to use survey results to adjust the census. The department has refused to turn over survey data to states and cities requesting the information, according to Jessie Heinz, a Los Angeles deputy city attorney.

The survey has been a political hot potato for several years, with a number of city officials accusing the Republican Administration of taking a dim view of the method because it would probably enlarge the population and, thus, the voter base in typically Democratic urban areas.

In California, officials argue that the state Constitution permits the use of the survey data to augment the census.

Allan Browne, a Beverly Hills lawyer representing the state Senate, said that besides adding 1.1 million people to California’s population, use of survey data would qualify the state for an additional $1 billion in federal aid over the next decade.

Browne, noting that the state faces a Jan. 2 deadline for redrawing legislative boundary lines, said the survey data would help pinpoint where the additional 1.1 million people are living and thus offer a better chance of equal representation in the Legislature.