For the entire history of the food stamps program, the federal government has paid for all the benefits. Starting this fall, Ohio and other states are going to have to take on some of those costs.
The exact amount depends on the state's error rate, which Ohio registered at 9% in 2024. Republican who championed the change said this creates incentives to reduce waste. But the change will leave Ohio and its counties governments with millions of dollar in new expenses — leaving less resources to run the program to help people pay for groceries.
MORE: Ohio’s SNAP error rate could mean big changes in near future
A state’s error rate measures how accurately they give out food stamps, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program, as it's formally called. States with an error rate higher than 6% could now have to cover up to 15% of program costs.
That is because the program is set to shift structurally over the next few years, covering tax cuts in the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act.
Two Ohio counties spoke with WYSO about how they are preparing to take on the new financial responsibility of running the program while trying to keep future error rates low.
Leaving jobs unfilled to offset new costs
A growing number of Ohioans are struggling to pay for their groceries, according to the most recent Feeding America data. That increase means counties across state are reporting more people receiving SNAP benefits.
About 15.3% of people in Ohio are food insecure, which is more than one percentage point higher than the year prior, according to that data.
In Warren County, around 11% of residents are food insecure — lower than the state average. But that still means thousands of county residents are covered by SNAP.
"Just to kind of give you an example of cost figures, [in February] that would be about $1.7 million," said Susan Walther, deputy county administrator for Warren County.
With changes to the program coming in the fall, Warren County's Department of Job and Family Services might have to pay $400,000 more to administer SNAP benefits.
The department is leaving five staff positions empty to offset this added cost, according to Walther.
“There are more checks and balances now being put onto our employees to check recipients. And when you remove funding and have higher expectations, that creates a barrier. So that is probably my biggest concern.”
While the team is still working hard to administer benefits to around 3.8% of residents in the county, they don’t anticipate any delays or added costs for recipients.
“There are going to be specific challenges to each county based on the population and demographics," Walther said. "And I imagine that some counties are going to have more challenges and some counties will have less challenges, depending on the economic structure of those counties, on the amount of recipients, on their workforce.”
And that is true for Clark County where close to 17% of residents are food insecure.
“Right now Clark County is concentrating on assisting in getting our SNAP error rate below 6%," said Tom McGrath, director of Job and Family Services for Clark County.
'Sometimes it's as simple as maybe a form didn't get turned in'
House Finance Chair Rep. Brian Stewart has proposed reducing the state’s error rate by transitioning administration of the program from individual counties to the state.
But Walther said while other states have successfully operated SNAP this way, there are pros and cons to that structure.
“When it's not county administered, you take away some of the flexibility and control a county has," she said. "When it's state-administered, it may create more uniformity.”
Walther also points to a misconception about error rates being solely the responsibility of administrators.
"Sometimes it's as simple as maybe a form didn't get turned in or things like that," she said. "So maybe being aware of those error rates that are unavoidable, and they're going to happen in any job that you have."
Walther said Warren County will still do its best to keep error rates low while working with less staff and higher expectations.
“There are more checks and balances now being put onto our employees to check recipients," she said. "And when you remove funding and have higher expectations, that creates a barrier. So that is probably my biggest concern.”
