Your tax dollars:
That’s the message I took away from this article in the Columbus Dispatch yesterday. Apparently there is much back and forth debate in Ohio about how many Somalis actually reside there.
Past estimates of Franklin County’s Somali population have ranged from 30,000 to 80,000. But a new report says that it’s more like 15,000.
An accurate number helps government agencies funnel funds for social services — English classes, jobs programs, etc. — to specific groups.
“Is it possible we have a grant proposal that says 40,000 Somalis? Yes,” said Angie Plummer, executive director of Community Refugee and Immigration Services.
But she said that grant proposals must include the specific number of people an agency expects to serve with the funds. That means while a grant proposal might refer to a population estimate, it will ask for funds to serve a specific number.
No one could say how much money has flowed in to help Somalis based on population estimates.
It’s a very interesting article, please read it all.
Then here is a line from near the end:
Communities stand to gain money [taxpayer money!] and power by overestimating numbers, she ( Barbara Ronningen, with the Minnesota State Demographic Center) said.
Community Immigration and Refugee Services is a subcontractor of one of the Top Ten federal contractors, Church World Service.