Within the Department of Finance, there is the Population Research Unit. The purposes of the unit include, but are not limited to, the following:
(a) Providing adequate demographic data to aid effective state and local planning and policymaking.
(b) Serving all levels of government and the private sector as the centralized state source of demographic data.
(c) Assuring equitable classification of cities and counties according to population to provide equitable distribution of funds and tax rate limits.
(d) Rendering advisory, investigational, or other similar service of relevance to the establishment of population and its composition to any city, county, district, association of cities, counties, districts or any other political subdivision or the federal government upon such terms and conditions as may be satisfactory to the director, provided that the state shall be reimbursed for all costs incurred in performing services authorized by this subdivision.