Big, beautiful ugly: 100K Ohioans without help 1 year later
New reality means more pain to come; state bracing for costs
By Susan Tebben
Ohio Capital Journal
COLUMBUS — One year ago, the Republican “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” made the largest cuts to food stamps in the history of the program. Now 100,000 Ohioans are going without help and the state is bracing for enormous new costs without federal help.
The Trump/Republican spending law made the largest cuts ever to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is largely used by children, older adults, and those with disabilities.
The cuts to SNAP have impacted millions of in-need Americans.
Not only did the spending law cause major damage, but the longest-ever federal shutdown that followed it meant even those who were able to get benefits couldn’t get them in a timely fashion, according to Gina Plata-Nino, director of SNAP policy and advocacy at the national Food Research & Action Center.
While all 50 states saw severe impacts, Plata-Nino said states like Arizona saw a more than 50% drop in SNAP benefits. Florida and Georgia each saw nearly 700,000 people lose benefits, despite still needing the help, she said.
Changes mean less for more
“It means that kids are going to have less to eat,” Plata-Nino said. “For families, it might mean that there’s just no food on the table, and they may not be able to pay rent because they have to pay for this.”
Ohio saw a 7% drop in SNAP since the cuts, amounting to about 100,000 people.
While the Ohio Association of Foodbanks also serves people at poverty levels slightly higher than those who qualify for SNAP, executive director Joree Novotny said food banks work with SNAP to “fill shortfalls, prevent hunger, and promote nutrition,” even as demand at food banks rises.
Novotny said the association is partnering with the state and counties to protect SNAP access, as numerous factors push down on the economic livelihood of Ohioans, including inflation, consumer prices, and other costs.
SNAP benefit theft has also impacted the system, she said, adding to the “general economic strain” for thousands of Ohio families.
“All this means continued pressure on Ohio’s food banks and their local hunger relief partners, while at the same time, food supply from retailer and manufacturer donations and federal commodity programs is down,” Novotny told the Capital Journal.
Eat good
Modernization of the SNAP cards used to purchase items has been approved by the Ohio General Assembly, and Novotny praised legislative action to give food banks emergency funds when the federal government shutdown held back SNAP benefits.
“These efforts and more will be important to food security for Ohio families and the continued strength of Ohio’s interconnected food supply chain,” according to Novotny.
On top of drastic cuts, the spending bill also changed the way states contribute, bumping the administrative costs a state pays from 50% to 75%.
“That means that SNAP has become a line item in the budget, and Ohio is looking at paying approximately $160 million additionally… to keep the program going,” Plata-Nino said.
States can also decide to opt out of the program if the costs are too high, but currently Ohio plans to continue.
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said lawmakers “helped cover the gap” for the increase, which takes effect in October.
An important part of the analysis of individual state SNAP programs is their error rate, or payment accuracy rate.
The rate shows how often states see common errors as part of their SNAP benefits participation.
Fraud is not considered as part of the error rate, but things like a failure to report income, incorrect makeup of a household, or miscalculating a household’s income or expenses are included, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
The analysis of the error rates is done both by the states and by the federal government, and sometimes those separate analyses can differ, according to Plata-Nino.
It’s important that the error rates are accurately noted, because the number determines how much the federal government will contribute to states, and an inaccurate rate could mean less money coming to state programs, under the new law.
Ohio has set its focus on the error rates for SNAP.
According to a press release on June 25, the job and family services department said the payment accuracy rate for SNAP in Ohio has improved, down to 6.76% in 2025 compared with 2024, when the rate was 9.13%.
“We have been working closely with counties to improve payment accuracy by reducing common errors in the SNAP program,” said department director Matt Damschroder in a statement. “Together, we’ve made significant progress over the past year and remain committed to becoming even more efficient stewards of these critical public resources.”
The department noted the importance of the lower rate, as the changes in federal SNAP cost-sharing create a line in the sand for states.
States with error rates under 6% will continue to see 100% of benefit costs funded, whereas states above 6% will pay “an increasing percentage of benefit costs,” according to the department.
The 2025 error rate is not going to be used to identify the cost-sharing the state will have, but Damschroder and the department said it “demonstrates that Ohio’s improvement can significantly reduce potential costs.”
If the 2024 rate of 9.13% was used to calculate Ohio’s costs, the state would have had to come up with $321 million. Under the 2025 rate, the cost would be $160 million.
The state said about 1.4 million Ohioans use SNAP benefits monthly, at a cost of more than $270 million.
Plata-Nino said there’s still hope that the SNAP cuts could be undone via a Farm Bill that’s still being debated in Congress.
She said “at minimum,” the Food Research & Action Center and other organizations have asked for Congress to delay the implementation of the changes in cost-sharing for all states.
While current drafts of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House versions are “cost-neutral,” meaning there would be no change for the SNAP program, Democrats are attempting to hold off until changes can be made, according to Plata-Nino.
Still, without a crystal ball, it’s hard to know how the Republican majority and President Donald Trump will move forward.
“We just don’t know how this administration is going to act,” she said.
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