Arkansas could be responsible for $73 million in new SNAP expenses if things keep crumbling in the direction they’ve been going. Put that in your LEARNS pipe and smoke it.
Thanks to the Trump Administration’s Big Beautiful Bill, supported by all four of Arkansas’ U.S. Republican representatives and both Republican senators, much of the cost of operating SNAP is being shifted to states.
One part of that shift is based on something called the error rate, which measures both overpayments and underpayments. These errors don’t support some right wing idea that SNAP is rife with fraud; it is not and especially not in Arkansas, where the fraud rate is less than 1%, according to Sylvia Blain, CEO of the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance.
Because Arkansas makes life hard on itself by making life hard on recipients, the state’s error rate is almost 9%. That’s a smidge better than the national average but way more than the 6% federally mandated threshold states have to meet to avoid a 10% penalty. That means that, based on the $506.7 million SNAP provides to the state, Arkansas could be charged more than $50 million for its poor error rate, according to the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance.
The making life hard part is because the state is so chintzy and mean-spirited, it applies the strictest limits on SNAP recipients, disqualifying them if they make more than 130% of the federal poverty rate. Arkansas is one of only 12 states that screws the lid down that tightly, with the other states choosing to allow SNAP recipients to make anywhere from 165% to $200% of the federal poverty level, according to snapscreener.com, an independent site that tracks SNAP and other social programs.
“In Arkansas, if you work 40 hours a week, you will make too much to qualify for SNAP,” Blain said. “And the minimum wage in Arkansas is not a living wage.”
Asset limits also create more pain for both sides – the state and the recipients. In Arkansas, with some exceptions, if you have amass more than $3,000, bye bye SNAP. Again, most states – 40 or so – don’t go there, having done away with such limits. Not having asset limits means someone can save a little money for a car or an emergency account as they try to better their life, and it also means the state doesn’t have to chase down every financial detail about every recipient. See where this is going? If the state let up on monitoring SNAP recipients’ assets, that could mean fewer errors for the state, giving Arkansas a better chance at getting to that strict 6% error rate cutoff.
Another part of the Big Beautiful Bill that excited Republicans (all
Democrats in the House and Senate voted against it) is that instead of states paying half of the administrative costs for SNAP, they will instead have to pay 75%, so that’s another $18 million to $23 million in expense shifted to Arkansas.
Blain said the increased costs for SNAP put the state at cross purposes. For one, if Arkansas is responsible for paying for more administrative costs, she said, “it behooves the state to cut staff, meaning there will be fewer people to run the program.”
“Already, we see that Oklahoma has cut its SNAP outreach, meaning less effort will be put into getting people signed up,” Blain said. “That could be something other states start doing.”
Likewise, if Arkansas is paying for a high error rate that is based on the amount of SNAP being spent, why would the state put effort into trying to get eligible people enrolled?
“We’re already not working hard to get people signed up,” Blain said. “We’re not making it easy.”
The Republican bill cut $186 billion from the SNAP program while 3.5 million people out of the 38 million recipients nationwide have been cut because of stricter requirements, according to PBS News. In Arkansas, the urgency of SNAP funding got a giant yawn from Gov. Sarah Sanders and the Legislature, which did not increase spending on that item this year. This leaves the Department of Human Services to try to absorb any increased costs into a flat budget.
The state, according to a spokesman, is looking for ways to address the millions in debt that will wash ashore next year and the year after. But as Blain said, “No one has explained what that’s going to look like.”
At the same time that SNAP and other social program shortfalls are coming closer to reality, the state cut taxes and committed to spending close to $400 million on vouchers for the 2026-2027 LEARNS program that covers tuition and other costs for homeschooling and private schools.
Also, in this discussion, it’s relevant to recall that Arkansas is the most food-insecure state in the country three years running, with one study saying 30% of Arkansans lack the ability to address basic nutrition needs. And yet, the state is doing one of the poorest jobs in the country of enrolling people in SNAP.
Blain said the state has some but not a lot of time to figure out what it wants SNAP to be – whether that means signing up as many eligible hungry people as possible or cutting recipients and the bottom line as much as possible.
“We see this as an economic development issue,” Blain said. “We have to stabilize this population and give them the ability to get back on their feet and become more productive members of the community. As they do better, the state does better. It’s shortsighted for us to see this as simply a handout.”
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