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By Christopher Vondracek, Jp Lawrence and Trey Mewes, Star Tribune (TNS)

WASHINGTON – The reconciliation bill moving through Congress might deliver property tax increases across Minnesota’s 87 counties, even as the measure’s authors tout its potential tax savings.

The reason: Minnesota is one of a handful of states to administer supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) benefits, or food stamps, through county offices. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed out of the House in May, promises tax cuts for small businesses and individuals while slashing benefits.

Some critics of the bill also say a portion of the federal savings are due to a swap in who is paying for administering SNAP, not the amount of it.

“They’re not cuts,” said Barb Weckman Brekke, a commissioner in Scott County, which stretches from the southwestern Twin Cities suburbs into exurbs and farm towns. “These are shifts.”

In Scott County, with approximately 2,800 SNAP cases a month, there could be a cost increase of $3.25 million, including a 4% boost to property taxes, estimated the Association of Minnesota Counties (AMC).

Weckman Brekke said she prefers administering SNAP locally. But the demands from Congress embedded in the bill amount to an unfunded mandate.

“What bothers me is the whole philosophy,” Weckman Brekke said. “The only way counties will be able to pay for that is through property taxes.”

Steve Schmitt — a commissioner in Meeker County, including rolling farmland and 24,000 residents west of the Twin Cities — said 90% of the county’s budget includes mandated spending from St. Paul or Washington, D.C. Any additional mandatory spending will eat into what he calls the “benevolence” budget that funds libraries, parks and the annual summer county fair.

“We have 42 lakes and 10 county parks in Meeker County, and it takes dollars to run those things, and we don’t like to cut appropriations,” Schmitt said. “So our property tax is going to take 100 percent of the hit.”

President Donald Trump has demanded the budgetary reconciliation bill reach his desk by the Fourth of July on Friday. On Monday, the U.S. Senate began debating the measure, with provisions on rural hospitals, Medicaid work requirements and green energy taxes in flux.

But on SNAP, state officials said Minnesota has a unique burden. Along with nine other states, including Wisconsin and North Carolina, Minnesota’s counties will pick up the difference of the federal government dropping what was a 50-50 cost share to a 25-75 ratio.

The bill also overhauls a funding formula for SNAP based upon a state’s error rate, or a test for how often beneficiaries are over- or under-paid their entitlement. Errors often include paperwork mistakes, not outright fraud, said Weckman Brekke.

Julie Ring, executive director of the AMC, said her group estimates the bill amounts to an annual $250 million price tag for Minnesota counties. And it’ll hurt worst for counties with more SNAP applicants.

For example, the expected property tax increase in Ramsey County alone, with more than 35,000 people on SNAP, is just below 7%.

“Where we have more poverty, we have more caseloads,” Ring said. “You’re going to get more cost and less reimbursement.”

In the Senate chamber Monday, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar brought a point of order, criticizing the reconciliation bill’s shifting of “tens of billions onto the states” in the name of fiscal responsibility.

“The largest shift in this whole bill, this largest unfunded mandate, is on the backs of kids and veterans and seniors and people with disabilities,” Klobuchar said.

Chair of the Senate agriculture committee Sen. John Boozman, R-Arkansas, responded that the 2023 report found the error rate exceeded 11% for SNAP payments.

“This title incentivizes states to be a better steward of taxpayer dollars,” Boozman said.

U.S. Rep. Brad Finstad, a Republican from southern Minnesota, said in a statement that Minnesota is one of only a few states that requires counties to entirely shoulder the cost of SNAP. He suggested states should have some “skin in the game.”

“Out-of-touch state government officials squandered a $20 billion surplus in reckless spending priorities rather than supporting the needs of Minnesotans,” Finstad said.

Rep. Angie Craig, a Democrat representing southern suburbs and parts of rural Minnesota who is also the ranking member for the House agriculture committee, said there’s no denying the tough choice local officials will need to make.

“County commissioners will only have two choices,” Craig said, who opposes the shift. “Raise local taxes for it or cut county services that residents currently rely on.”

Bruce Schelhaas owns Tracy Food Pride grocery store in southwestern Minnesota’s Tracy and said a number of customers depend on SNAP.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” said Schelhaas, who described himself as a political moderate. “For me, the tax cuts would help out. But it’s a bigger deal that you’re taking away money from people who can’t afford it in the first place.”

Others who might politically support Trump and the Republican Congress’ bill to slash federal spending and reduce the deficit said they blanch at what looks like budget trickery.

“Property taxes are regressive, and they hit you whether you have the money or not,” said Olmsted County Commissioner Mark Thein.

In northern Minnesota’s St. Louis County, Linnea Mirsch, director of the county’s community and human services, said about 16,000 individuals use SNAP monthly.

While she worries Congress’ additional work requirements will boot deserving people from the eligibility list, she also believes the added rules will only hamstring an already strained staff with clunky technology.

“I’m hopeful systems can make some improvements,” Mirsch said. “But these are some pretty significant, pretty detailed work requirements for SNAP and Medicaid.”

Mirsch cited AMC numbers, saying St. Louis County could see a 6% increase in its property taxes.

The federal government is leaning on counties just weeks after the close of a legislative session in St. Paul that saw the state government also push more costs onto counties.

“When they get creative, we start to scratch our heads out here,” Schmitt said. “Oh boy, that’s not going to work.”