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An effort to reduce the stringent income reporting requirements in Mississippi’s food assistance program, which could prevent taxpayers from shelling out an additional $120 million a year, fizzled out at the end of the legislative session.
Mississippi uses “change reporting” in its implementation of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This reporting requires SNAP recipients to report any change in their income, household size, or address within 10 days.
Experts say Mississippi’s choice has hurt poor people, wasted administrative resources, and may cost the state millions of dollars in the near future.
Sen. Daniel Sparks, a Republican from Belmont, and other Republican Senate leaders attempted to ease these requirements by adopting “simplified reporting,” which requires recipients to report only a major change in their income immediately.
Senate leadership urged a switch to a new reporting system because Congress last summer passed the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump. Under the federal legislation, the cost of food assistance benefits will shift from the federal government to the states.
How much a state will pay is based on its error rate for SNAP.
An error rate measures how accurately each state determines whether a person is eligible for SNAP benefits. States with error rates over 10%, such as Mississippi, will have to pay a penalty tied to the amount of benefits they receive.
Mississippi’s 2024 error rate of 10.69% is slightly below the national average but would still leave Mississippi on the hook for the maximum penalty.
Experts told Mississippi Today that part of the reason Mississippi has a high error rate is the unique red tape surrounding the state’s SNAP program. Mississippi is the only state in the nation to ban simplified reporting requirements for SNAP recipients.
House leadership ultimately did not agree to the Senate’s proposal. House Public Health Chairman Sam Creekmore, a Republican from New Albany, told Mississippi Today that he did not necessarily oppose Sparks’ plan to roll back change reporting, but he wants to study the implications of the proposal and potentially conduct hearings on the subject later this year.
Now, Sparks said he hopes the Trump administration will grant Mississippi some type of exemption for SNAP penalties, or the state’s congressional delegation can work on a carve-out.
“I hope the administration will reward us for doing a more rigorous reporting method and not punish us,” Sparks said.
