A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to fully fund Supplemental Nutrition Assistance benefits in November. The move comes after two courts ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to use contingency funds to provide federal food assistance to almost 42 million Americans. The White House announced on Monday that it would fund half of November benefits. The New York Times’ Tony Romm reports on the ruling and what’s next for food assistance benefits:
But the Justice Department almost immediately told the court that it would appeal the ruling. The move renewed fears that the poorest Americans would not receive their full benefits to purchase groceries this month, leaving many at risk of imminent and severe financial hardship. The order, issued by Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, marked his second legal rebuke of the administration. Reading from the bench after a short but tense hearing, he sharply criticized federal officials for ignoring his original order last week to quickly restart payments for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP.
The funding quagmire is hurting families who rely on SNAP to put food on the table. Both The New York Times and Washington Post provide first-hand accounts of how families are navigating the turmoil.
The many benefits of School Readiness Tax Credits
The vast majority of brain development occurs before children turn 5, which makes access to early care and education programs crucial for future success. Walt Leger III, president and CEO of New Orleans & Company, writing in a guest column for the Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate, explains how businesses can participate in crucial investment for our youngest learners through School Readiness Tax Credits:
These 100% refundable state tax credits allow companies to contribute up to $5,000 a year to their local Child Care Resource & Referral agency. The state then reimburses every dollar. CCR&Rs, like Agenda for Children here in Orleans and 10 neighboring parishes, invest those funds in teacher retention incentives, classroom upgrades, curriculum support and other tools that directly improve child care quality and early educational opportunities. Even nonprofits and businesses with no tax liability can participate and receive the full refund.
Austerity is not the only option
The Trump administration is shifting some of the financial responsibility of health care, food assistance and recovering from natural disasters from the federal government to states. All these moves will leave state leaders with tough choices about how to support their communities with dwindling federal dollars. Kamolika Das of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy explains how policymakers can resist austerity in this fiscal retreat:
First and foremost, states need to stop digging deeper fiscal holes. From 2021 to 2023, policymakers in 26 states cut their personal income tax or corporate income tax, 13 of them multiple times. … While the best way to safeguard state and local revenues is to simply stop cutting taxes, states should also consider more equitable options for raising revenue, as lawmakers in Maryland, Washington, Connecticut, and Rhode Island did this year. Maryland’s new budget, for example, advances tax equity and raises needed revenue by creating two new brackets for high earners and a surtax on capital gains, strengthening the state’s Child Tax Credit, and adopting several other policies.
States vie for rural health funds
All states have applied for a share of a $50 billion fund to address rural health issues, which was included in the federal tax and budget megabill that Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed in July. But as Stateline’s Shauneen Miranda explains, the fund is inadequate:
The fund is intended to offset the budget impacts on rural areas due to sweeping Medicaid cuts. However, the temporary fund could only offset a little more than one-third of the package’s estimated $137 billion cut to federal Medicaid spending in rural areas over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan health research organization KFF.
The new law includes nearly $1 trillion in cuts over 10 years to Medicaid, a program that plays a larger role in providing health coverage to people living in small towns and rural communities than in metropolitan areas.
Number of the Day
$8.4 billion – Projected decrease in federal funding for Louisiana if allocations return to 2019 levels, adjusted only for inflation. This represents 18% of the state’s projected expenses. (Source: Truth in Accounting)