State taxpayers may be on the hook for millions after Trump deals them shortfall
Among the cuts in the Republican budget bill that passed the House last week was a cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known as food stamps. Instead of continuing to fund the program through the Department of Agriculture, states will left on the hook to fund it.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, this could put Georgia in the position to come up with the funds to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to poor families.
The report stated that the funding "storm" begins with a cost-sharing formula forcing states to pay between 5% and 25% of the price of SNAP. It depends "on a formula that corresponds with how often people receive benefits that are later found to have been in error.
"Georgia would be on the high end, and the liberal-leaning think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington estimates the state could be on the hook to pay up to $812 million a year for its share of SNAP starting in 2028."
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It all happens as President Donald Trump brags that the prices of groceries are "going down."
CBS News tracks U.S. commodities and the price changes that have occurred since 2019, the year before the pandemic began. Everyday items like eggs, orange juice, sugar, soft drinks, utility gas, ground beef, white bread and more, have all increased.
"While Mr. Trump touts his economic record in interviews with the press, he has claimed without evidence that consumers are seeing record-low prices at their gas pumps and exaggerated the decline in crude oil prices since he took office. The president has also falsely stated that he has overseen a drop in grocery prices," CBS reported of Trump last month.
Jennifer Owens is the president of HealthMPowers, one of four nonprofits that use about $10 million in federal funding each year to help feed children who qualify for SNAP-Ed. That program also got cut in the House funding bill.
A vote-tracker published by the Washington Post showed that all Republican members of Congress in the Georgia delegation voted in support of the bill. All Democrats in the Georgia delegation voted against the budget.
“There’s our piece of it, and then there’s just bigger ramifications around the changes to SNAP benefits and even Medicaid,” Owens told AJC. “That’s still the same population that’s going to be impacted. So, in some ways, it’s like a perfect storm for folks who are just trying to do their best to put food on the table,” she said.