Last chance to mail in census forms, save money

If you haven't gone through your mail in a while, you might want to keep an eye out for that census form.

Nebraskans, apparently, aren't doing as well in turning in their U.S. Census forms as they were in 2000. By the most recent count, Nebraska's overall participation in the current census count was 67 percent -- 12 percentage points below the rate 10 years ago. Red Willow County, in fact, is more than 15 points below the 2000 rate.

We've heard the mantra about how the census relates to federal spending -- more than $400 billion in federal funding is spent, based on census data, on community services such as hospitals, schools, senior centers, roads and job training centers.

But there's a more direct cost associated with the census.

If you mail back your 2010 Census questionnaire, it will cost the government 42 cents.

If you don't -- although it was supposed to be sent in by April 1, but you actually have until this Friday -- someone will come knocking on your door, trying to find out how many people live in your home.

That will cost more than 42 cents.

In fact, it will cost an average of $57 to count each household that didn't respond by mail.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, if every household mailed back its census form, taxpayers could reduce the cost of the census by about $1.5 billion.

We hope you've already mailed in your census form.

If not, please find it, take 10 minutes to fill out the short, 10-point questionnaire and drop it in the mail.

You'll help save the taxpayers -- that's you -- extra expense. You'll also avoid that knock on the door in May.