JBC debates how to spend Healthy School Meals for All revenue; sets grants and SNAP support

The Joint Budget Committee on March 23 moved to set grant and stipend levels for the Healthy School Meals for All (HSMA) program at the maximum authorized amounts after staff said both the Legislative Council Staff (LCS) and the Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) agreed the committee could do so under current forecasts. Amanda Bickle, JBC staff, told members statute requires use of the LCS forecast when deciding grant and stipend waterfall amounts and said LCS and OSPB both supported giving the maximum amounts.

Why it matters: HSMA is a new, uncertain revenue stream with widely divergent forecasts; staff presented both OSPB and LCS numbers and warned that forecasts differ substantially. Committee members said they wanted to keep a prudent reserve because revenues depend on federal policy and November certification dates.

What was decided and why: The committee retained the staff approach to set grant and stipend levels using the LCS forecast for that statutory step while continuing to use OSPB for broader planning. Members approved a motion to place $2.5 million into a nutrition-education line (referred to in staff materials as ‘‘SNAP Ed/nutrition education’’) and confirmed an earlier decision to set aside roughly $50 million as an ongoing reserve to manage forecast risk. Tom Dermody, JBC staff, confirmed HSMA allocations approved so far include about $37.3 million intended to cover SNAP administration cost shifts, which includes some county administration funding as well as county indirects and overspend coverage.

Key debates and trade-offs: Members pressed staff on whether HSMA dollars could be redirected to other human-services programs or to address general-fund pressure. Bickle said statutory language limits HSMA to food- and nutrition-related expenditures unless the committee adopts a statutory change; some members signaled interest in using the long bill for appropriation choices while reserving statutory changes for later. Senator Kirkmeyer and others emphasized using HSMA dollars to invest in CBMS work and county staffing to reduce SNAP error rates, which in turn could lower future SNAP costs.

Quotes: "Statute requires you to use the LCS forecast for that narrow statutory determination," Amanda Bickle said when explaining why the LCS forecast set the grant/stipend trigger. Tom Dermody noted that the committee's SNAP-admin decision "includes county administration funding," and gave an estimate of county-specific components already approved.

Next steps: Staff will finalize the HSMA transfer and long-bill language and return with any statutory language needed if the committee wants to change permitted HSMA uses. The committee also authorized a drafting motion for the transfer bill and directed JBC staff to provide CBMS and SNAP administration detail in upcoming comebacks.