(Ohio Capital Journal Photo) Fruit is displayed at grocery store.

By Nick Evans

Special to The Times

Reductions in federal funding for food stamps are rippling through the Ohio legislature.

For decades the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has split administrative costs evenly between states and the federal government.

The Trump/Republican One Big Beautiful Bill Act changes that split to 75% and 25%, with states shouldering more of the burden.

The measure also pushes benefit costs onto states for the first time.

Based on a state’s SNAP error rate, it could be on the hook for 5-15% of its benefits.

In the most recent year on record, only eight states and the U.S. Virgin Islands had error rates low enough to avoid added costs.

Ohio’s error rate was 9%, meaning the state would have to cover a tenth of its SNAP benefits.

Researchers at Georgetown University estimate those changes together will increase Ohio’s SNAP contribution by 268% — pushing the state share north of $530 million.

The added administrative costs take effect this October, while the benefit cost share is set to begin the following year.

The immediate shortfall amounts to about $38 million landing on counties throughout the state.

While Republican lawmakers aren’t prepared to cover the full amount, they offered to put up $12.5 million to soften the blow in Ohio House Bill 730.

But their plans for divvying up the money infuriated Democratic lawmakers who pushed back forcefully during recent floor debate.

What could be fairer than equal?

Ohio House Bill 730 is what’s known as a capital re-appropriation bill. Ohio budgets on a two-year cycle, but many of the projects it funds take longer than that to complete.

Because lawmakers would like to see the roads, bridges, and community centers they paid for actually get built, the reappropriation bills which keep dollars flowing are typically noncontroversial.

But the proposed SNAP distributions changed the calculation for House Democrats.

Ohio state Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, who leads the Finance Committee, defended the plan, arguing it treats Ohio’s 88 counties equally.

“It starts out giving the same exact amount of money to every single county, but once a county is made whole, they don’t get any more,” Stewart said. “We then take the remaining funds and distribute those to all the remaining counties equally until the money runs out.”

In all, he said, 59 counties won’t lose a penny.

But $12.5 million split 88 ways doesn’t amount to a huge sum of money. The largest amount any county will receive under the GOP plan is about a quarter million dollars.

Cuyahoga County meanwhile stands to lose $7.5 million in federal administrative funding. Franklin County will lose $5.6 million. Hamilton, Lucas and Montgomery Counties stand to lose more than $2 million each.

But to Stewart’s point, the GOP plan treats them all equally. Each one gets $226,486.

Democrats’ amendment

Ohio state Rep. Munira Abdullahi, D-Columbus, offered an amendment on the House floor that would distribute dollars based on an existing administrative formula. In short, the money would flow based on need.

As a thought experiment, Abdullahi described a cafeteria with hungry people at two different tables. If there are a bunch of hungry people at one table and one hungry person at the other, you wouldn’t just split sandwiches equally between the tables.

“Food doesn’t feed tables or counties,” she said. “It feeds human beings.”

“This isn’t county versus county. It’s not urban versus rural. It’s not Democrat versus Republican,” Abdullahi continued. “It’s about whether we fund public services based on real need and real caseloads, or not — simple as that.”

And Abdullahi argued the stakes are bigger than county balance sheets. The $38 million Ohio stands to lose in federal administrative funds pales in comparison to the money it could have to pay in benefits if error rates are too high.

But it could be hard to keep error rates down if agencies running the program don’t have adequate funding.

Shortchanging program administration means less money for the people who “verify eligibility and enforce work requirements and prevent fraud,” Abdullahi said.

“If we cannot fill the entire $38 million hole today, then the least we can do is distribute the limited dollars we have in a rational way,” she said.

“We should not be setting up our largest counties to fail, colleagues. It’s a question not only of fairness, but also of fiscal responsibility.”

Passage

Stewart dismissed the idea, insisting “a handful of metro counties would get the overwhelming bulk of the money, and then the smallest rural counties would fight over the scraps.”

“And let’s be clear, these largest counties, that we’re clutching pearls over, have the money — period,” he claimed.

Stewart contends that while counties are looking to the state to cover lost federal revenue they’re sitting on significant carryover balances.

“What is the money for,” he asked, “if not to pay for things like this?”

But Ohio state Rep. Daniel Troy, D-Willowick, noted some resource-strapped, small counties are getting punished for doing exactly what lawmakers encourage.

One argument in Ohio’s property tax debate is that local governments should share services. Instead of paying to build out a fire department in every city and township, maybe communities should band together to pay for one department serving all of them.

“Under this bill, we’re penalizing South Central Jobs and Family Services, which serves Hocking, Ross and Vinton County,” Troy said.

South Central’s combined administrative cost shortfall is only about $386,000, and even though they serve three counties, they’re treated the same as agencies serving one. They got the maximum amount of $226,486.

“If they hadn’t shared services, they would all be restored at 100%,” Troy said. “But because they’re a shared thing, there actually will be a reduction in the funding they get.”

The House voted down Abdullahi’s amendment and approved the bill by a vote of 66 to 29. In all, four Democrats supported the measure. The proposal now heads to the Ohio Senate.

Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Nick Evans on X or on Bluesky.

Original story can be found at https://ohiocapitaljournal.com