Wisconsin taxpayers will avoid paying up to $205 million in new federal FoodShare penalties, set to begin in Oct. 2027, after a proactive state investment.
Gov. Tony Evers said in a state press release that Wisconsin is one of nine states expected to avoid the new federal penalties created under President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.
“Unfortunately, last summer, Congressional Republicans passed President Trump’s so-called ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ cutting essential food assistance by about 20% by increasing red-tape requirements and gutting healthy and nutritional food education programs,” Evers said. “As a result, the latest reporting shows that more than 770,000 kids across our country are no longer receiving the basic food assistance they need due to these changes.”
“That is shameful.”
SNAP error rates aren’t fraud
Under the Big Beautiful Bill, states have to cover part of the cost of the program if payment error rates in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known as FoodShare in Wisconsin, exceed a 6% federal threshold. Error rates, however, do not measure fraud and are based on unintentional mistakes states do not control. According to USDA data, no state has ever achieved a zero-percent error rate.
Wisconsin’s typical error rate is well below the national average. According to data released by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Wisconsin’s fiscal year 2025 payment error rate was 5.72%.
Wisconsin historically stays around a 4.5% payment error rate, giving it one of the most accurate food assistance programs in the United States. In 2025, only seven other states had a lower error rate. The national average payment error rate is 10.62%.
Wisconsin boosts SNAP staffing
“Wisconsin’s low FoodShare error rate is a reflection of the hard work and expertise of all the people across our state who run one of the best SNAP programs in the nation,” said Wisconsin Medicaid Director Amanda Dreyer in a release. “I applaud the incredible staff and partners who make this program possible.”
“We are committed to doing what it takes to help every Wisconsinite who needs assistance buying food and, at the same time, meet the highest standards of accuracy.”
Evers worked to get more than $72 million in additional state funding so the Wisconsin Department of Health Services could support FoodShare.
“With these Republican changes, states across the country are now facing potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in new penalty fees to be paid to the Trump Administration,” Evers said. “That’s why we worked hard to secure more state support for Wisconsin’s FoodShare program to help keep our tax dollars here in Wisconsin instead of paying exorbitant penalty fees to Washington.”
The funding went towards SNAP administration, expanding staffing, increasing quality-control audits, and boosting oversight to ensure eligibility calculations remained accurate.
“We worked hard to make sure Wisconsinites will not have to fork over $200 million in new penalty fees to the Trump administration next year—and it’s no thanks to President Trump or Republicans in Congress, that’s for darn sure,” said Evers.
In February, Department of Health Services Secretary Kirsten Johnson said the state wanted more quality-control staff..
“These additional costs to Wisconsin taxpayers are direct results of changes made by the Trump administration, who created more red-tape barriers to make it harder for people to access basic food and health care, Johnson said.
Bill Hanna, who was Wisconsin’s Medicaid director at the time, said the extra positions would allow more cases to go through a secondary review. Hanna said confusion stemming from federal changes and the addition of new requirements to get benefits has caused people to lose trust in the program.
“Error rates are incredibly complex,” Hanna said. “They are not fraud. They are not always agency error. They’re also not intentional member error. It is a complex program.”
While low-error states are guaranteed to owe nothing when the annual cost-sharing requirement begins in October 2027, others will have another year to try to reduce their errors and decrease the hit to their budgets.
South Dakota had the lowest error rate last year, about 2.5%.
