SNAP Changes Will Upend State Budgets

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a lifeline for millions, providing food that stabilizes families and strengthens communities, but the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) of 2025 made seismic changes to the structure of SNAP, shifting costs to states.  

Currently, SNAP benefits are funded entirely by the federal government and the costs of administering the program are shared by the federal and state governments. OBBBA introduced a new state matching requirement for benefits and increased the state share of administrative costs. Under OBBBA, states must cover part of the benefit costs for the first time, and their share of administrative costs will rise from 50 percent to 75 percent. We analyzed SNAP data and state budget data to map the impact of OBBBA changes to SNAP on all 50 state budgets (see Figure 1) and the findings are staggering. With OBBBA’s SNAP changes, states face impossibly high costs—forcing them to cut other programs, raise taxes, reduce SNAP access, or end their SNAP programs altogether.

State SNAP Budgets Will More Than Double Under OBBBA

OBBBA will dramatically alter state budgets, requiring states to spend vastly more of their own funds on SNAP. SNAP costs will rise sharply in all states, with the increase ranging from 50 to 768 percent of the share of state budgets allocated to SNAP. On average, states will have to spend two to three times more of their budgets on SNAP, with a median increase of about 202 percent. In 15 states, the share of the state budget required to fund SNAP will increase more than 300 percent. Some states will be hit particularly hard:

• • The cost increases will be highest in states with large populations and the budgets to match, such as California and Florida, where the increase is projected to be at least $2.5 billion and $1 billion, respectively.
  • The cost share burden falls heavily on some states, including many with above‑average poverty rates. Oklahoma, Mississippi, New Mexico, and West Virginia are four of the 15 states that are estimated to have SNAP expenditures rise by more than 300 percent. All have poverty rates above the national average of 11.1 percent, and will be left with fewer resources for other services such as education and health care.
  • The states with the largest increases in the share of their budgets going to SNAP are Florida (nearly 770 percent), Alaska (nearly 650 percent), and New Mexico (almost 540 percent).