 | |  | |  | |  |
No Way!!! - Mayor refutes population loss
"No way."
Those were the words from Mayor Joe Powell in response to a front page story in Wednesday's Journal-Register stating that
Auburn had lost population since 2000.
The mayor pointed out the inaccuracies of the story that used births, deaths and tax records as the basis for the results.
Powell said the city has issued at least 10-20 building permits a year for homes in the last eight years. In addition, he notes, the
school enrollment has been climbing almost every year of late, excluding the addition of Divernon a year ago.
Auburn's school enrollment was 1083 in 2000 when the city's population was 4317. In 2006, it was 1163.
"We really had felt that we had been gaining population since 2000," said the mayor, adding that he figured we'd be close to
5,000 by the 2010 census.
Population is very important to cities and villages because Motor Fuel Tax Money, used for arterial street maintenance, and a
state income tax refund are both based on population. Last year, the city earned $121,000 for the MFTF and received $371,500 in
income tax rebate.
Another inaccuracy in the J-R story was the 2000 figure used of 4379. The census given the city that year was 4317. It is
calculated that Auburn now is at 4311, thus the decrease, if there really is one is just six persons, not 68.
The city had a population (census) of 2594 in 1970. It was 3311 in 1976 after a special census; 3616 in 1980 and 3724 in 1990.
"No way."
Those were the words from Mayor Joe Powell in response to a front page story in Wednesday's Journal-Register stating that
Auburn had lost population since 2000.
The mayor pointed out the inaccuracies of the story that used births, deaths and tax records as the basis for the results.
Powell said the city has issued at least 10-20 building permits a year for homes in the last eight years. In addition, he notes, the
school enrollment has been climbing almost every year of late, excluding the addition of Divernon a year ago.
Auburn's school enrollment was 1083 in 2000 when the city's population was 4317. In 2006, it was 1163.
"We really had felt that we had been gaining population since 2000," said the mayor, adding that he figured we'd be close to
5,000 by the 2010 census.
Population is very important to cities and villages because Motor Fuel Tax Money, used for arterial street maintenance, and a
state income tax refund are both based on population. Last year, the city earned $121,000 for the MFTF and received $371,500 in
income tax rebate.
Another inaccuracy in the J-R story was the 2000 figure used of 4379. The census given the city that year was 4317. It is
calculated that Auburn now is at 4311, thus the decrease, if there really is one is just six persons, not 68.
The city had a population (census) of 2594 in 1970. It was 3311 in 1976 after a special census; 3616 in 1980 and 3724 in 1990.
Issue Date: July 17, 2008
