Impending SNAP cost shifts could put local taxpayers on the hook for millions

CATSKILL―Greene County lawmakers are calling on state and federal officials to give them a break on impending SNAP cost shifts that are projected to pass millions of dollars onto local taxpayers.

The requests come in two separate but highly debated resolutions passed Wednesday night.

Changes to SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program commonly referred to as food stamps, are included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that was signed into law by President Donald Trump last year. In addition to stricter eligibility and work requirements for recipients that have already taken effect, the law will soon require states with payment rate errors above 6% to pick up a portion of program costs.

Only nine states are below the error threshold and New York is not one of them with a rating of 13.8 percent―meaning the federal share of SNAP administrative costs will drop from 50 to 25 percent. But it isn’t Albany that is anticipated to be picking up the bill.

New York is also among just ten states in which counties are required by state law to administer SNAP and share in the administrative costs, according to the Greene County Legislature’s first resolution.

“This administrative cost shift is estimated at $168 million annually statewide, including approximately $57 million for the 57 counties outside New York City, and is projected to grow as the [One Big Beautiful Bill Act] imposes new verification, tracking, and reporting requirements and expanded work requirements that increase county workloads and staffing needs,” that resolution states.

Together, the administrative and benefit cost shifts are projected to exceed $1.3 billion in new annual SNAP costs for New York State and its 62 counties, representing what the resolution describes as “one of the largest unfunded intergovernmental cost transfers in recent memory.”

The administration cost-share takes effect on October 1 of this year and on October 1 of 2027, states will be required to contribute toward the actual SNAP benefits.

The cost for Greene County is estimated at around a quarter million dollars for the final quarter of this fiscal year, explained Greene County Administrator Shaun Groden.

“But the impact for fiscal year 2027 is $2.3 million to $2.5 million,” Groden said.

In May, the most recent month of data reporting by the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, some 2,459 households in Greene County received SNAP benefits, representing 3,788 residents.

Greene County’s first resolution asks federal lawmakers to pass a two-year delay, something U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC) and regional food bank officials have been advocating for.

A stay of implementation of the new regulations would give both Congress and New York State time to develop what the county resolution calls a “responsible funding solution.” Should the federal government fail to act, county lawmakers are calling upon Gov. Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature to hold counties harmless by appropriating state funds to cover the administrative and benefit cost shifts.

But not all county lawmakers were happy with the language of the resolution and while it passed in a split vote, Legislator Michael Bulich of Catskill proposed a second resolution that was also approved with some dissent.

“This could have been a simple resolution about asking that counties are held harmless instead of going through the first page and half of it,” Bulich said of the first resolution.

Legislator Michael Lanuto of Catskill said the wording “basically bashes the entire [federal] administration and the One Big Beautiful Bill which has this in there to basically combat fraud.”

“We didn’t need two pages of that,” Lanuto argued. “This could have been a one-liner that we call on the state to exempt the counties for this and the state will pick up the tab.”

Legislator Greg Davis of Greenville opined that New York State will never pick up the costs.

“They will dump it on the counties, that will be their goal. That’s why I think we should vote in favor of this,” said Davis.

“This is a protest resolution and we do these all the time. This one is not specifically about helping people. It’s not about whether people get SNAP, it’s not about fraud,” Davis said. “If the federal government doesn’t pay this, New York State is going to dump it all on our taxpayers. That is what all this is about for me.”

“The problem is New York State law puts this on the backs of property taxpayers. And it should not be on the backs of property taxpayers,” said Legislative Chairman Patrick Linger.

Still, legislators like Thomas Hobart of Coxsackie called the resolution a “political pep rally.”

“Basically, the boondoggle is, ‘Hey, Albany, get with the program instead of passing it down to the counties’,” said Hobart.

“There are a lot more income taxpayers in New York State then there are property taxpayers. And that is why the resolution says if the federal government doesn’t pick up this cost or doesn’t delay it―we are not saying to stop it―we are asking [New York State] to delay it to give the counties the time to make up the funds,” Linger said.

Another issue, county lawmakers say, is that New York and more than 20 other states have refused to comply with requests to turn information on SNAP recipients over to the federal government. Hochul argues that doing so would be an invasion of privacy.

And county legislators say the Greene County Department of Social Service (DSS) is not part of the problem.

Legislator Daryl Legg said he spoke with DSS Commissioner Kira Pospesel and that Greene County’s error rating is “about as close to zero as you can get.”

“In 2025, we saved $1,918,836 by going over these programs and not giving out awards to people who do not deserve it,” Legg said.

The second last-minute resolution, proposed by Bulich, requests the federal government to assess Greene County separately from the rest of the state.

“So, they can audit us, give us the A-plus, and put in any corrective actions and therefore we wouldn’t’ be subject to the whole of New York State being penalized,” Bulich said. “We may be okay here in Greene County but we should be allowed to prove that.”

“You can bet your bottom dollar that there are other counties that aren’t doing the job that Greene County is doing in regard to checking up on people and making sure they are legitimately getting services,” Bulich added.

Davis said that while he disagrees with the state’s decision to withhold information from the feds, he questions whether Greene County going rogue would result in ramifications from the state.

“That is the concern I have,” Davis said.

“The authority really lies with the state by federal statute,” Linger added.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has estimated that in 2025, $10 billion in improper SNAP payments were made nationwide. But there are differing views on why the errors occur and a 2024 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) largely attributed the issue to over- or under-payment issues rather than widespread fraud. Still, GAO data showed that actual fraud did cost American taxpayers around $1 billion.