Let’s see feds team up

As the federal government finishes up the 2010 Census with workers numbering in the hundreds of thousands, and at an expense of over $11billion, I would like to make a simple suggestion for 2020 and beyond.

Why isn’t the census form just added to the 1040 tax forms once every 10 years? Virtually every man, woman and child in the United States is either a taxpayer, a spouse or a dependent thereof. Having worked as a tax preparer for over nine years, I know that the data the census seeks, such as names, birth dates, relationships and addresses, are already in the 1040 forms. Every year the IRS is adding and/or modifying its forms.

Not that I am expounding the IRS as any beacon of government efficiency by any means, but I am sure they could adjust their data capture for the purpose of the census for a heck of a lot less than $11billion. And they already have an army of government employees.

Maybe the concept of multitasking this job to the IRS would just be too “logical.” In our ever-expanding government bureaucracy, doing something “cost-effective” is truly a lost concept.

Randall Babin

Wallace