Starting Friday, about 1.8 million Ohio food stamp recipients will have to make do with lower monthly benefits because a temporary boost in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has expired. The decrease means Ohio will lose $193 million yearly in extra money that was approved as part of 2009’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The average per meal subsidy for SNAP recipients will be cut from $1.50 to $1.40, resulting an average loss of $29 in monthly benefits, according to a report by the Policy Matters Ohio think tank.
“The economy is still weak in many Ohio counties,” Policy Matters Ohio’s Wendy Patton said in a press release. “Many people cannot get work or do not earn enough to feed their families. These cuts to food aid are going to hurt many children, families and communities.”
An additional $40 billion cut that the House of Representatives approved in September will make the situation worse if it becomes law, anti-poverty advocates say.
Critics of the program, such as the libertarian Cato Institute think tank, say it breeds government dependence, has significant fraud and abuse levels, and has become “bloated and inefficient.”
“The time has come to reform the food stamp program by reducing its spending and enrollment and, ultimately, by returning responsibility for its operation to the states,” the organization said in an Oct. 16 report.
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