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As counties across the U.S. grapple with expected budget strains from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, lawmakers are under pressure to pass a farm bill. That's opening the door for a potential compromise as states seek to delay cost shifts related to the country's biggest anti-hunger program.
As Democrats echo a call from groups such as the National Governors Association to postpone SNAP benefit and administrative cost shares for all states under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), Republicans need Democratic support to pass a farm bill this year. While it's far from clear if a deal will be reached, county officials, including from heavily Republican areas, are asking for a delay.
“It would be nice if my federal partners could figure out a way to not shift this burden to local governments,” said Samuel Croom, manager of Bladen County, North Carolina, which is among 10 U.S. states that administer SNAP at a county level.
States and counties are preparing for an increase in SNAP administrative costs from 50% to 75% starting in October. The following year, states with payment error rates (PER) of 6% and above will also be on the hook to start paying part of SNAP benefit costs.
Critics of the plan say payment mistakes, both over and under, are usually unintentional and that the new financial burden will make it even more difficult to improve the program. They also argue that some states may need to cut benefits for vulnerable Americans. Supporters say the anti-hunger program is broken and needs to be fixed. The benefit expense shift alone is expected to cost the impacted states about $9 billion in total, with nearly half possibly owing $100 million or more, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
For Bladen County, a rural area of eastern North Carolina that’s trended Republican over the last 10 years, nearly $400,000 of its roughly $65 million annual budget will go to new SNAP administrative costs starting in October, Croom, a self-described political independent, told Agri-Pulse. While that surely will mean budget “trade-offs,” the county has found ways to trim costs through negotiating better contracts with vendors, he said.
Croom isn’t sure yet the amount that benefits will cost next year. As of now, his county would face those additional costs, even though its PER is 2.94%. That’s because North Carolina’s 2025 rate is 7.36%, lower than the prior year of about 10% but still in the cost-shift range of between 6% and 13.3%.
One of the controversial aspects of the new SNAP rules include a carveout made in OBBBA that says if a state has a fiscal 2025 PER above 13.32%, it doesn’t have to pay for any part of SNAP benefits until fiscal 2029. The delay goes up to fiscal 2030 for states above that level in fiscal 2026. The exceptions were made to win support for the tax-cut bill from Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, which has the highest PER at 23%.
“The irony is that over in the Senate, they gave the states with the highest error rates more time to comply, so all we're asking is for fairness for all of the states, give them time to comply,” Angie Craig, D-Minn., ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, told Agri-Pulse.
Quinn Jaeger (Clay County photo)
Counties responsible for SNAP are especially caught in the crosshairs. Unlike state governments, many counties can’t collect money through income taxes, such as in Minnesota.
In Clay County, a region of eastern Minnesota that’s been turning redder in recent election cycles, residents are facing a potential 4.1% increase in property taxes due to the SNAP program costs alone, Quinn Jaeger, Clay County’s social services director, told Agri-Pulse.
The increase is a “worst-case scenario” if offsets aren’t found, according to Jaeger. The county will do all it can to make other cuts and be “as creative as possible to try and minimize the impact to our local property taxpayers,” he said.
For the SNAP changes overall, both the administrative and benefit cost shifts, the preliminary estimate is that by 2028, Clay County will face a $1.9 million hit to its annual budget, Jaeger said.
The latest payment error rate for the county is 1.7%, down from a prior 3% and well below the 8.98% for all of Minnesota.
Jaeger said the county was working on lowering its payment error rate prior to the passage of OBBBA.
“All our eligibility workers, they want to do a good job, they want to make sure that people that are eligible for SNAP get it, they want to make sure that people that aren't eligible aren't getting it, or getting what they're supposed to only," he said. "We've always prided ourselves in Clay County of having a very low error rate.”
Clay County, which lies in the Red River Valley that borders western Minnesota and eastern North Dakota, is a top U.S. sugarbeet-producing region. The region was represented in Congress by former House Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., for 30 years before he was defeated in 2020 by Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-Minn.
Jaeger said he’s hopeful the Minnesota legislature will ultimately take on some of the SNAP costs from the counties. “I’ve heard a lot of positive bipartisan support to do something,” he said.
There’s also some increasing optimism that a bipartisan agreement in Congress on postponing the SNAP cost shifts could emerge. Just a few weeks ago, the prospects didn’t look good.
Booker: SNAP a 'red line' for Democrats
Senate Ag Committee Chair John Boozman, R-Ark., had been firm earlier this year in saying a delay wasn’t on the table and that a flawed system riddled with errors must be fixed. The panel’s top Democrat, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, has been equally steadfast in saying the SNAP issue must be addressed.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., also on the ag committee, said last month that SNAP is a "red line" for Democrats. That same week, committee member Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., said in an interview with Agri-Pulse that Republicans were taking Democrats’ concerns seriously.
Boozman last week told Agri-Pulse Newsmakers he’s open to providing some relief to states working to comply on SNAP. It’s not clear what that may look like, but the SNAP talks are expected to be a top issue when senators return from a two-week recess in mid-July.
Federal data show SNAP made $10.1 billion in improper payments in fiscal 2025, with a 10.62% error rate, little changed from 10.9% the prior year, noted the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.
The group argues that while a growing number of senators and governors seek to delay the cost-sharing rules amid farm bill negotiations, Congress should “instead close loopholes and strengthen state accountability tools.”
A survey this month from the Urban Institute and the American Public Human Services Association found that states are actively working on a wide range of strategies to improve SNAP payment accuracy, including investments in workforce development and technology modernization.
Jenny Mongeau (LinkedIn photo)Jenny Mongeau, who serves on the executive committee of the Association of Minnesota Counties, and chairs the Clay County Board of Commissioners, said upgrading antiquated technology systems around the state is a major challenge, though recent funding from Minnesota lawmakers will be a big help. The green screens look even older than the “Oregon Trail” video game that first hit the market more than 50 years ago, she said.
She’s hoping error rates can start coming down over the next couple years.
Overall, the cost shifts mean county officials are reckoning with an upcoming “several year, really painful pinch point,” she told Agri-Pulse.
Another state where counties are facing big SNAP challenges is New York. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., has received letters from counties including the heavily Republican Orleans County.
Officials there are asking for a minimum two-year delay in the cost-sharing requirements. Minnesota's Renville County, also a GOP stronghold, has made the same request to Klobuchar and Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn.
“States are now understanding the devastation to their budgets and how their constituents are hurting, conservative county commissioners as well,” Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., told Agri-Pulse. “All the way down to the county level, we're seeing concerns across the country."
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