Do the paperwork

Filling out one's census form helps New York; ignoring it can be costly for the state, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has reminded New Yorkers.

The senator said that 200,000 New Yorkers failed to return their census forms in 2000 during the last nationwide count in which New York's official population fell slightly under 19 million people.

New York may have forfeited about $3.6 billion in federal aid since the 2000 Census, Sen. Gillibrand told the Associated Press.

Struggling to make ends meet, New York surely does not want to forego any federal aid because of an undercount. The 2010 Census will determine the state's number of representatives in the U.S. House. The count will affect federal funding for education, health care, public safety services and the like.

We need to get it right.