What are they saying about the Census and Poverty?

By Fred Kammer, SJ, JSRI Director

In September, the U.S. Census Bureau released its new figures on poverty from the 2009 American Community Survey.  The five states of the Gulf South continue to have millions of people living below “the poverty line,” as you can see from the table below[1], together with the overall U.S. and regional numbers:

On this simple measure of the percentage of the population living in poverty, Mississippi has the highest percentage in the nation, as has been the case for a number of years.  The national poverty rate, at 14.3 percent, is the highest it has been since 1994, reflecting the “great recession” of the past several years.

To understand the regional picture better it helps to listen to some of those who track the state-level data and the fiscal and economic policies that underlie the overall picture of poverty and income distribution.  They often help us to understand the general picture by highlighting distinctive features of their state within the overall statistical gumbo.  For example, analysts at the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Texas emphasized in initial reports that more Texans were below the poverty line and lacked health insurance compared to 2008.  Most Texas metropolitan areas had poverty levels exceeding the national average and that, once again, “Texas had the nation’s highest statewide uninsured rate,” which was 23.4% of the population. (See Metro-Area Census Data Show More Poor and Uninsured in Texas.)

In another post-census report the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy indicated that the census results confirmed that, while Texas could be considered a “low-tax state” generally, this was not true for families living near or below the poverty line.  The poorest 20 percent of Texans pay, on average, 12.2 percent of their income in taxes, while the richest Texans (the top one percent) pay only 3 percent.  This is because Texas relies on more regressive sales and property taxes and has no state income taxes. (Census Data Reveal Fundamental Tax Mismatch in Texas.)

In Alabama, on September 29, 2010, the Associated Press State and Local Wire reported that the new census showed that “the economic downturn pushed more Alabamians into poverty and depressed household incomes overall.  The figures, they commented, “paint a bleak economic picture in Alabama with more people living on less income and needing more public assistance.”  Earlier, on September 20, 2010, the Mobile Press Register website (www.al.com) carried an interesting story that a business publication named Business Insider reported that, using more complicated “public use files” of the Census Bureau that adjusted poverty levels for geographic cost of living, ranked Alabama, not Mississippi, as Number One on the poverty scale in the U.S.

The Mississippi Economic Policy Center (MEPC) reported on September 29, 2010, that, while the state’s poverty rate was relatively unchanged from the prior year, Mississippi households saw a decline in median income by 2.9 percent.  That decline, said MEPC, “illustrates the struggle Mississippi’s working families have been facing. With incomes decreasing, workforce supports such as Supplemental Nutrition and child care remain critical for supporting families during these difficult economic times.  On October 22, 2010, the MEPC hosted its 2010 Annual Policy Conference, "Reaching for Prosperity: Creating Equitable Solutions for Mississippi's Working Families," in Jackson, MS.  Links to presentations on payday lending, health care reform, and creating equitable solutions for MS working families are available at http://www.mepconline.org/conference/2010-Presentations to see how local advocates respond to the economic pressures on working folks.

In two separate reports, the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy analyzed the census data for the state.  They described the numbers as “grim,” noting that 2.7 million people in Florida live below the poverty level, “including 850,000 children.”  The increase in two years is 550,000 Floridians.  In terms of racial disparities, the center notes that, while the poverty rate for whites is “only” 12.4 percent, “poverty now claims more than one in four black residents of Florida (26.8 percent) and almost one in five Hispanics (19.3 percent).”  Florida also has very high rates of uninsured residents, ranking fourth in the nation behind Texas, Nevada, and Alaska.  In addition, its tax structures have made it the second-worst in the nation, with the highest tax rates falling on the poorest families. (See Poverty Rises in Florida While the State’s Tax System Benefits the Wealthy and The Poor and Near-Poor in Florida Increase; Income of Those at the Top Rises.)

[1] Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2009, calculations by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Washington, DC.