Rural communities all over the country are getting ready to apply for the biggest income tax refund in history – and it’s a refund Wilkes County has been partly cheated out of for 10 years.

I’m talking about the 2010 U.S. Census. The number of residents that are counted here directly affects the amount of Federal and state money we get, money that we taxpayers have pumped into the government every time we pay a tax. Thousands of our residents were missed in the 2000 Census, and because of that, we’ve lost out on millions and millions of state and federal funding – lost out on our own tax money that should have come back here but instead went somewhere else.

Not this time.

By standing up and being counted in the Census this time, we get to squeeze the Feds and the state back. When the government knows how many more of us there are, they’ll be forced to pay us back far more of our tax money every year for the next decade.

It’s that simple. If we get a full count, it’s payback time.

Census numbers are used to distribute more than $400 billion in federal funds each year to state and local governments for things like new roads and schools, and for services like job training centers and career academies. Title 1 education grants depend on these numbers, as do Head Start and WIC. For a poor rural county like Wilkes with so many people depending on government checks and programs, it’s vital we get a full count of our residents.

One of the biggest challenges to a complete count is the fact that more than 2,800 Wilkes County households get their mail at a post office box, but the Census Bureau will not send census forms to a post office box. Wilkes County Commission Chairman Sam Moore has often said he thinks that we missed 2,000 or 3,000 people in the 2000 count just because of that.

That’s not acceptable this time.

To reach all those uncounted households, the Census is hiring scores of local workers to man assistance centers in Washington, Tignall, and Rayle to help residents be counted, while other local workers will be visiting unreached homes to help fill out the 10-question form. Local volunteers from the Wilkes Complete Count Committee will also be talking to their neighbors to help everyone be counted.

If you’re like me, you’re tired of paying taxes and seeing very little for it. Since we’re stuck with paying taxes, it only makes sense to make sure every dollar and dime we can get comes back to Wilkes County. The only way to do that is to make sure every resident is counted and force the government to cough up everything we deserve.

After all, it’s our dadgum money.