NCGOP Cuts Food Assistance for Thousands of NC Children and Elderly Citizens

The North Carolina GOP added an obscure provision into the budget bill passed through the Senate last week. That obscure provision will lead to over 133,000 elderly people and children to lose their food assistance in North Carolina. The program the NCGOP cut was completely federally funded, meaning they’re not saving the state any money with this cut. When defending this cut, Sen. Ralph Hise claimed North Carolina has seen a huge growth in the food stamp program when in reality North Carolina’s food stamp program has dropped 9% in the last year.

From WRAL:

The elderly and children account for more than half of the nearly 133,000 needy North Carolinians who would be booted off of federal food assistance as a result of an obscure provision in the budget bill passed last week by the state Senate.

Curiously, the cut wouldn’t save the state a dime since the program is entirely funded by the federal government.

More than 15 percent – 20,395 — of those who would be denied assistance qualify as elderly (60 or older) while 39 percent – 51,236 — are children (18 and younger).

During the depths of the recession, North Carolina expanded eligibility for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as the law allowed. The state extended coverage to households earning between 133 and 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, said the cut was needed because of “tremendous growth that we’ve seen in our food stamp program.” However, according to the most recent figures from the federal government, the number of North Carolinians getting food stamps in the last year has dropped 9 percent – from 1.6 million in 2016 to 1.4 million as of February.