The One Big Beautiful Bill Is Gonna Crap in Watauga's Hat (and in every other county's hat in the state)

The "One Big Beautiful Bill" is one of the most significant unfunded mandates and one of the largest shifts of administrative and economic responsibility that our state and our counties have seen in generations.”

-- Kevin Leonard, executive director of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners

Paige Masten reminds us today what an "unfunded mandate" can do to state and local government.

One major piece of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed by Congress last year, made big changes to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), both of which are largely administered through local government, especially county commissions that control social and educational programs. The new law has Medicaid work requirements and more frequent eligibility checks. Masten: "Those requirements create new administrative burdens and challenges. The state will have to hire and train more staff, update technology and create data systems to handle the new processes." Counties too.

The bill also contains the largest-ever cut to SNAP funding, forcing states to bear more of the financial and administrative responsibilities of administering the program. It also will require states to pay a percentage of the SNAP benefit costs if they make too many payment errors. According to ProPublica, North Carolina will likely have to start paying out an estimated $420 million annually in SNAP benefits under its current error rate. That means that the share of the state budget required to fund SNAP could rise by 352% in North Carolina, an analysis from the Georgetown University Law Center estimates. 

 It’s a mess....

Masten on the obvious and most likely political fallout:

Politically, it’s going to be a particularly big mess for Republicans, who will bear responsibility for any potential disruptions to, or termination of, benefits. That’s primarily the case for congressional Republicans who voted for the legislation. Some Republican members of Congress have a higher percentage of constituents who rely on Medicaid and SNAP, so any loss of benefits could affect their districts deeply.