In Part 1 of this series, we explored the ethical nature of asking the entire American public—present and future—to subvent our county’s poor. In this installment we’ll show that MoCo doesn’t need to beg the federal or state governments to fund local poverty relief; we can do it ourselves.
The Department of Agriculture publishes biannual data on SNAP reimbursements at the county level. In January 2025 (last data available), MoCo SNAP reimbursements were $12,815,661, annualized to about $154 million. Suppose there is no fraud. Suppose the federal government no longer provides that subvention, and suppose the state government no longer provides that subvention. Given those assumptions, does MoCo have the resources to continue that program?
One way of addressing a new $154 program is raising property taxes. At approximately 370,000 households, that amounts to an average $416/year increase in property tax per household. Obviously affluent households pay more, and struggling households pay less. Nevertheless, that is a significant increase that will only accelerate the county’s out-migration.
Another way of addressing the $154 program is by defunding existing programs. The following list shows some FY2026 line items that come close to that amount:
- In MCPS’s 2025 budget, no less than $148 million is allocated to administration and business positions.
- The county budgeted $473 million for debt service, which apparently is sustainable but more than three times the amount needed for self-funded SNAP.
- Recycling and resource management consume $192 million.
- Parks and Planning (MN-CPPC) consumes $218 million.
- The county’s entire operating budget is an astronomical $7.6 billion, and a SNAP program represents 2.03% of that amount.
This is the real-life question: is there any program, line item, or expenditure that is less important than SNAP and can thus be terminated? Is maintaining parks more important than food security? Is the army of MCPS bureaucrats more important than food security?
In this short series we explored a) the shaky justification for the federal government’s funding our county’s SNAP, and b) presented very good arguments that the county can self-fund SNAP (should that be necessary).
The conclusion is that nobody should be hurling insults at the Trump Administration for reducing the SNAP subvention. MoCo and most other local jurisdictions can fund and operate those programs independently. Let’s thank the broad American public for its past generosity in doing our job. Going forward, we should expect the federal government to do what it does best, and that’s protect the nation’s borders.
