Gov. Andrew Cuomo will propose spending an additional $10 million on state-based efforts to have people respond to the coming U.S. Census, he said Monday in a conference call.
If approved, it would bring the state's total spending to $70 million on Census-promoting efforts.
At the same time, Cuomo is tapping prominent New Yorkers to highlight the Census effort: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Lucy Liu, and Martin Luther King III will co-chair the state Census committee.
Cuomo will release his full budget proposal on Tuesday.
New York faces acute issues in the Census this year. The survey doesn't just determine how many congressional districts a state is apportioned in the House of Representatives, but also how federal aid, grants, and other forms of support are distributed across the country.
Meanwhile, some officials have raised concerns the immigrant community would be potentially undercounted given President Donald Trump's administration's focus on illegal immigration.
"As this federal administration continues to disenfranchise immigrant communities and use every means possible to stop them from filling out this year's Census questionnaire, we are taking aggressive actions to ensure every single New Yorker is counted," Cuomo said. "This new council will lead the charge coordinating stakeholders so we can reach our most difficult to count communities and help ensure New York is accurately represented and gets the federal funding we need and deserve."
The state's population has not grown as fast as the rest of the country and is expected to lose at least one seat in the House of Representatives.
Cuomo, in the call, said Census efforts were "essential to empower the people of New York."
"I would not be shocked if the federal government would try to manipulate the findings of the Census to their political benefit," he said.