Boundary and Annexation Survey

E-mail: BASSC 1 <overprinting> and Text

Subject: <YYYY> Boundary and Annexation Survey State Certification–<ST_ABBR>

Dear Governor <LAST_NAME>:

The U.S. Census Bureau conducts the Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) every year to update legal boundaries, names, and statuses of tribal, state, and general-purpose local governments. The Census Bureau uses this boundary information for data collection, tabulation, and dissemination for the decennial census, American Community Survey, Population Estimates Program, and many other censuses and surveys. Following each BAS cycle, the Census Bureau conducts the BAS State Certification Program to review and certify updates sent through BAS.

As part of the BAS State Certification Program, we compile listings of boundary changes reported during the previous BAS cycle by governments within your state and distribute them to the governor-appointed State Certifying Official (SCO). If state law requires general-purpose local governments to report boundary updates to the state, the SCO is responsible for reviewing the listings and certifying that the information is correct. This program ensures that the Census Bureau’s inventory of general-purpose local governments is accurate and that the boundary changes reported to BAS comply with your state laws. For details on this program, refer to the BAS State Certification Program website.

Please provide the name and contact information of the person you wish to appoint as the SCO for <STATE> on the attached BAS State Certification SCO Appointment Form and email the completed form to <geo.bas@census.gov> by <DATE>. If you do not respond by this date, we will distribute materials to the previous SCO listed on the attached form. We plan to distribute the BAS State Certification materials for review to the SCO in December <YYYY of the same BAS year>.

Thank you for your participation in the BAS State Certification Program.

Email: <geo.bas@census.gov>

Phone: 1-800-972-5651

General BAS information: <www.census.gov/programs-surveys/bas.html>

Attachments: BAS State Certification SCO Appointment Form (BASSC-1)