Wisconsin counties that are not yet participating in the Census Bureau’s County Consolidated Boundary & Annexation Survey (C-BAS) Program have 90 days left to sign up before the August 1, 2014 deadline for the 2015 Boundary and Annexation Survey.
The U.S. Census Bureau conducts the Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) annually to collect information about selected legally defined geographic areas. The BAS is used to update information about the legal boundaries and names of all governmental units in the United States. The Census Bureau uses the boundary information collected in the BAS to tabulate data for the decennial and economic censuses, and annual estimates and surveys such as the Population Estimates Program and the American Community Survey.
To reduce the burden on local governments and avoid duplication of efforts, the Census Bureau offers consolidation agreements to counties that are interested in submitting boundary changes for the legal governments (incorporated places and minor civil divisions) within their jurisdiction. The consolidated BAS (C-BAS) program allows counties to report boundary and feature changes for some or all of the legal governments within their county. Once a local government agrees to the consolidation, the local government will no longer receive BASmaterials. Instead, the county BAS respondent will be responsible for providing the Census Bureau with all boundary updates.
The Wisconsin Legislative Technology Services Bureau offers a BAS tool on their Web site to participate in the County Consolidated BAS.
For more information on the C-BAS program, contact Gail Krmenec with the U.S. Census Geography Division/Geographic Areas Branch at (630) 288-9258.