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TONOPAH -- The 2010 census is about power, jobs and money, said David Byerman, chief government liaison for Nevada for the U.S. Census Bureau.

Byerman wanted to encourage county commissioners to be public advocates for a campaign to count every Nevadan in 2010.

The census figures will be used to reapportion the U.S. Congress and Nevada Legislature, Byerman said. "That's very important in a state like Nevada. We have the potential to add a fourth congressional seat," he said. "Obviously redistricting of the state Legislature is also tremendously important as we try to maintain a rural voice in the Nevada Assembly and Nevada state Senate."

He didn't mention Nye County itself, where county commission districts will be redrawn.

The census will also be a mini-stimulus project, Byerman said. The U.S. Census Bureau expects to hire 4,000 people across the state; 1,300 people were hired for the initial address canvassing.

"The third and most important part, in my opinion, is the money that's available in this process," Byerman said. "Every man, woman and child we lose in the census, Nevada stands to lose $917 per person, per year."

In 1990, Nevada had the fifth worst response rate to the census in the country, Byerman said, with a 2.3 percent undercount, missing 28,431 Nevadans.

"There are many people in this state, throughout the West, I would say, who are deeply skeptical of the federal government. They don't want the government asking a lot of questions," he said. "This is important for us as Nevadans, regardless of what people feel of the federal government."

The best way to reach out is to address the issue of getting our fair share of money back, Byerman said.

Byerman talked about trying to take the federal government out of the equation along with the mandatory obligation to answer the census and recast the census as a neighborhood grass roots campaign.

The response rate was a little better in the 2000 census. Byerman said they missed 1.6 percent of the population or 33,570 Nevadans.

If the 2010 Census misses 1.6 percent of the population, 47,066 of the 2.8 million estimated Nevadans won't be counted, meaning $43.2 million in lost federal funding annually, he said.

Nye County was the first county to pass a resolution in support of the census, Byerman said. There is an attempt to assemble a statewide coalition of all 17 counties to form a complete count committee, he said.

Byerman also wanted a county commissioner to be a liaison to the U.S. Census Bureau and participate in meetings by video conference.

"I know how important it is to get the census dollars in," said Borasky.

Byerman said the census will be easier to answer this year with only 10 questions.

The one-page census form asks how many people live in the residence and their names; whether additional residents are children or relatives; if the residence is owned or rented by the occupant; a telephone number to call for any questions; a person's sex, age, ethnic background and race; and whether the resident sometimes stays somewhere else.