TOPEKA — Agriculture is a potential winner of new federal dollars when Kansas officials considered the state’s gains and losses from the “one big, beautiful bill“ act, the legislative budget committee learned Tuesday.
Multiple funding opportunities through expanded agriculture grants were included in the law, covering everything from the agriculture conservation easement program to the conservation stewardship program, said Dylan Dear, assistant director for fiscal affairs at the Kansas Legislative Research Department.
IN A presentation backed by a 25-page report on Kansas federal funding, Dear broke down changes outlined in the Trump spending and tax cut law.
The information showed effects on various programs, such as food and nutrition and health care, as well as possible effects of funds that were pulled back, called rescissions, from a variety of agencies and how specific Department of Government Efficiency actions hit the budget.
Committee members questioned total dollar amounts flowing in and out of the Kansas budget as a result of OBBBA, but Dear said there weren’t definitive answers.
“Those DOGE items, in particular, are very difficult to track because they’re not enacted into law in most cases,” Dear said. “So we just tried to identify those ones that we have been able to confirm.”
The memo will be updated constantly, Dear said, calling it a “work in progress” for months. Arriving at an exact dollar amount will be difficult, he said.
“A lot of these are grant opportunities,” Dear said. “We’re looking at either additional federal funding streams being made available, but we’re not going to know how much Kansas is going to receive, or we’re looking at rescinding of unobligated balances. But we are still working with the agencies to determine what specifically has and has not been obligated.”
A FEW KNOWN dollar amounts could stretch the state’s budget.
Kansas’ Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program was part of Tuesday discussions because the OBBBA requires the state to cost-share based on its error rate.
That rate is near 10%, which would mean the state would pay 10% of benefit costs.
If the error rate stays at that level in FFY 2026, Dear said the state share would be $40.8 million. The cost share doesn’t go into effect until FFY 2029 but is based on the error rate in either FFY 2025 or 2026.
The OBBBA also increases the state’s share of SNAP administrative costs from 50% to 75%, beginning in fiscal year 2027. The budget would see a nearly $20 million in additional costs annually, Dear said.
Some parts of the federal legislation, such as changed tracking of SNAP recipients subject to work requirements, involve creating new administrative procedures and don’t have a dollar amount attached, Dear said.
MULTIPLE HEALTH care programs that receive federal funding, such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, will require administrative costs from the state, Dear said. For instance, to prevent duplicate enrollment, states must create a system by Oct. 1, 2029, to prevent individuals from being enrolled in multiple states, Dear’s testimony said.
About 10 OBBBA changes did not apply to Kansas because the state never expanded Medicaid, Dear said.
