The time for voluntarily returning Census 2010 forms has ended. And the numbers for New York State are not good. According to recent published reports, five states – New York, California, Texas, Arizona and Florida – are very close to losing congressional seats because of poor participation in the Census. New York State trails other states by as much as 5 percentage points. If we do not boost our numbers with increased participation from May 1, when Census enumerators will knock on doors, then we're going to lose a lot of money that will impact our ability to create jobs, repair roads and bridges, and build hospitals and senior citizen centers.

Based on recent population trends, New York State is now estimated to fall just above the cutoff for the last House seats when they are redistributed in 2011. I am aware that there are significant challenges in maximizing our count. How to inspire confidence and encourage New York City's approximately 500,000 undocumented immigrants is an onerous challenge that is compounded by a climate of near-xenophobia across the nation. When states like Arizona pass anti-immigrant laws that make it a criminal offense to be in the United States without legal documents, then the work of the U.S. Census Bureau is made infinitely more difficult.

Then there is the challenge of getting our youth to participate in the Census. For many of them, their parents included them in the last national count when they were either teenagers or underage children. Making this new generation aware of the importance of the Census is an ongoing problem. And while the U.S. Census Bureau has been doing an excellent job of promoting and marketing the Census, I am of the opinion that there must be a more aggressive, focused, and concerted effort to reach our youth across all racial and socio-economic lines.

Plain and simple, the immigrant community just doesn't trust the federal government. But there is still a window of opportunity that New York State must take advantage of if we are to get our fair share of the annual $400 billion pie for the next 10 years. I am urging all of the people of New York State who did not fill and return the simple 10-question Census 2010 forms to open your doors and let the census enumerators help you do so.

The Census is not finished and the available data to date suggests that the non-respondents were disproportionately low-income, lesser-educated or renters.

This final push to count everyone in the United States therefore takes on a sense of urgency for New York State.

In all, more than 600,000 workers will fan neighborhoods until mid-July to query people on the 10 Census questions on race, gender and family relationships. It is my hope that with an organized grassroots "each one tell one" approach, we can boost New York State's final count.

It is vital that we bring in a high count. As it stands now, New York State could lose one congressional seat and millions of dollars annually at a time when the state can ill afford it.

I want to reiterate: The 2010 Census is not about immigration, your social security number or when you arrived in the United States. It is about counting everyone now living in the United States.

I am also calling on my colleagues in government to redouble their efforts to mobilize and organize their respective districts and communities by reaching out to community groups, block associations, tenant groups, youth organizations, churches, mosques, synagogues and other faith-community outlets to get the word put.

This time, let us STAND UP AND BE COUNTED for Census 2010 – the quality of life of all New Yorkers depends on our increased participation.

We can either get financial scraps or we can get a nice, big slice of the $400 billion pot – each year for the next ten years. It's in your hands.

For everyone who does not participate in the Census, we will lose over $4,000 per individual for the next ten years. It's as simple as that.

We have one more opportunity between May and July to get this right and to do right by our children and grandchildren - let's not blow it.

Senator John L. Sampson is the Majority Conference Leader of the New York State Senate and represents Brooklyn's 19th Senate District that includes Flatlands, Canarsie, parts of Brownsville and East New York.