Last week, the Ohio Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 315, a bill to increase cybersecurity for Ohio’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as “food stamps.”
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has come under scrutiny recently due to changes passed at the federal level as part of House Resolution 1, known to many as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” Due to changes placed in this bill, state lawmakers have been rushing to tighten their state food assistance programs, hoping to avoid penalties associated with improper payments. This is likely to have a big impact in many states and could especially hit Ohio hard.
What is changing in SNAP?
The federal government is mandating a range of changes to state nutrition assistance programs through House Resolution 1. These changes focus on shifting more responsibility from the federal government to state governments and beneficiaries.
First, House Resolution 1 shifts administrative costs to states. Before House Resolution 1, states were on the hook for 50% of administrative costs. The new bill increases that cost to 75%, meaning states will need to take on more of the cost of administering SNAP programs.
The federal government is also requiring states to pick up more of the tab for benefits. The scale that the federal government has mandated is that the federal government will cover the cost of 100% of benefits for states with less than six percent error rates, but that coverage rate will shrink to 85% for states with error rates of 10 percent or higher.
Finally, the federal government is expanding work requirements for food assistance eligibility. The new law mandates new work requirements for parents of teenagers, veterans, homeless individuals, former foster youth, and people living in places of high unemployment.
Why do changes to SNAP matter for Ohio?
Ohio is a major state for food assistance benefits. 1.3 million Ohio residents received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in February 2026 according to the United States Department of Agriculture, about 11% of the state’s population. That amounts to about 700,000 households and $250 million in spending. Since Ohio spent about $50 billion on groceries in 2024, that means about 6% of all grocery spending in the state of Ohio comes from federal food assistance benefits.
All in all, about 1 in 17 grocery dollars in Ohio come from SNAP and about 1 in 9 Ohio residents benefitted from those dollars directly in February of 2019.
What SNAP costs could HR1 shift to Ohio?
The two largest cost categories Ohio policymakers are having to look at in the face of these new changes are administrative costs and benefit sharing. Analysts at Georgetown Law’s Center on Poverty and Inequality estimate Ohio’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program spending will nearly quadruple under the new law, with the state’s $150 million Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program obligation ballooning to nearly $540 million.
Some of this cost will come from higher administrative costs falling on the state. According to the Georgetown Law Center, Ohio currently splits a $290 million administrative obligation with the federal government, each paying half. Ohio’s share would increase from $150 million to $220 million under baseline. The remaining $320 million of new obligations would come from cost share determined by Ohio’s error rate.
How do counties fit into the SNAP cost shift?
According to the National Association of Counties, Ohio is one of ten states that delegate the obligation to administer Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to its counties. Among those ten, Ohio is one of six states that splits the state obligation for administering Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program between state and county government budgets.
The County Commissioners Association of Ohio reports that the state of Ohio has appropriated $44 million for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program administration and requires counties to cover $41 million. They estimate that the changes in House Resolution 1 will lead to an additional $47 million in new administrative costs which the state has not determined plans for yet. Note these costs are low compared to the estimates made by the Georgetown Law Center, so these costs could end up being higher.
What can Ohio do about HR1’s new SNAP rules?
Ohio will have some decisions to make in the face of these new changes. In a best-case scenario, the state will be on the hook for tens of millions of dollars, though it seems like it will be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars more. The state will have four main options for dealing with this change.
Absorb the costs at the state level. This would mean either raising revenue through new state taxes or fees or cutting spending elsewhere.
Shift costs to counties. This would require counties to find ways to pay for these new costs through new revenue streams or cuts to other programs.
Reduce enrollment through administrative rules. This would mean making it harder for people to claim food assistance, which would impact food insecurity and family budgets for low-income families.
Reduce error rates through investment in administrative capacity. This is certainly one of the goals of the federal legislation: to reduce moral hazard for states by giving them incentives to reduce error rates.
What do Ohio policymakers need to watch out for as SNAP changes to HR1 are implemented?
As Ohio policymakers enter this brave new world of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program regulation, their eyes need to be on certain targets. The most important is error rates. Different tiers of error rates will mean swings of hundreds of millions of dollars of state obligations.
At the same time, these new obligations will mean new costs for counties, households, and local safety net systems. Policymakers will need to keep an eye on county administrative burden to see how this obligation is shared between state and local government in Ohio. Families will be impacted by benefit access, food insecurity, and churn. And in the broader support community, local food bank demand may be impacted by changes in benefits.
Changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program do not eliminate costs for the federal government, they just move them. Decisions made by state policymakers will decide to what degree these costs will be further shifted to county governments, and county decisions will decide to what degree they are shifted to families and private food assistance networks. No matter what decisions are made, someone will still pay.
