Deep red state discovers new $200 million annual bill — courtesy of Trump

Alabama Media Group reports state legislators are discovering a nasty new bill courtesy of President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” this week as the Alabama legislative session is underway.

“It’s a matter of what can we do or should we do - or is there anything that can be (done) to prevent running into that $200 million wall?” said state Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, chairman of the Senate’s general fund committee. “And right now I think that train’s got the light on headed straight for us.”

Trump and Republicans designed the Big Beautiful bill to pass federal social safety net costs down to states — even those with a Republican majority. Now those costs are coming home to roost as lawmakers are discovering the GOP law cuts federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which serves about 750,000 Alabamians.

“That means the state is going to have to pay more of the cost — as much as about $200 million a year starting in 2028,” reports AL.com.

Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate fashioned Trump’s bill with a difficult bar to leap in the name of fairness, but low-income red states like Alabama and Mississippi with middling state government investment will have a difficult time meeting that bar. The state could avoid much of the increased burden if it can some lower its error rate in the SNAP program below a 6 percent target.

The state’s current error rate is about 9 percent, according to Alabama Department of Human Resources Commissioner Nancy Buckner.

Republican state lawmakers likely did not welcome the news from Buckner on Thursday when she informed them that many of those errors are difficult for DHR to control. These include incidents when there is a change in the household of a person receiving SNAP that affects their eligibility. or the amount of their monthly benefit, or when there is a delay in adjusting the benefit.

Errors made by clients count toward the rate, as well as errors made by the agency, AL.com reports.

Until the Big Beautiful Bill, the federal government paid the full cost of SNAP benefits and 50 percent of administrative costs. But, in order to fund the permanent extension of the Trump tax cuts, states will pay 75 percent of administrative costs starting in 2027. The biggest change comes in 2028, officials say states will also have to pay a portion of SNAP benefits for the first time.

AL.com added that Alabama’s error rate was 8.32 percent in fiscal year 2024 is actually the lowest of eight southeastern states for the third straight year—meaning states like Mississippi and other deep red Southern states are about to catch it.

Read the AL.com report at this link.

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