WASHINGTON -- Should the government be spending millions of taxpayer dollars on Super Bowl ads for the census in these times of daunting deficits and busted budgets?
"I am very concerned with the amount of money spent by the Census Bureau for the production and airing of these commercials," Georgia's junior senator wrote.
"Every one percent increase in the mail back of census forms from residents saves the government $80 [million] to $90 million in labor-intensive costs of door-to-door follow-up to non-responding households," Census Bureau spokeswoman Shelly Lowe wrote in an e-mail response to questions from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Lowe said that when the Census Bureau bought a Super Bowl ad in 2000, it helped halt a three-decade decline in response rates.
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