Press Release: 8/5/2026

SNAP in Massachusetts























 



HOW THE FOOD STAMP PROGRAM IS FAILING BAY STATE TAXPAYERS



By Hayden Dublois









 


Today the Fiscal Alliance Foundation is releasing SNAP in Massachusetts, a new white paper examining how the commonwealth’s food stamp program grew into the most expensive and error-prone in New England — and what it is about to cost Bay State taxpayers.



The findings are stark. Massachusetts now has the highest SNAP error rate in the region and among the highest in the nation. Under the 2025 federal reconciliation law, that record carries a price: a cost-sharing penalty of roughly $300 million a year, paid not by Washington but by Massachusetts taxpayers.



This is not a staffing problem. It is the predictable result of policy choices — and it can be fixed.







READ THE WHITE PAPER





















12.49%



SNAP error rate — the highest in New England









$300M



Potential annual cost-sharing liability for taxpayers









$1.4B



Issued improperly in SNAP benefits over four years









1.1M



Massachusetts residents dependent on SNAP in FY2025



WHAT THE PAPER FINDS



















Enrollment and spending have exploded



Between 2015 and 2025, SNAP enrollment in Massachusetts rose nearly 40 percent while expenditures climbed roughly 120 percent. Despite holding less than half of New England’s population, the commonwealth accounts for nearly 60 percent of the region’s SNAP spending.

A $300 million bill is coming due



At a 12.49 percent error rate, more than $1 of every $10 spent on SNAP in Massachusetts is improper. Beginning in FY2028, the state’s error rate triggers the maximum federal cost-sharing penalty — roughly $90 per tax-paying household, every year.

The causes are policy choices, not accidents



Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility, “simplified reporting,” certification periods as long as 36 months, and more than 120,000 discretionary work-requirement exemptions have built an on-ramp to error — and every one of them is reversible.

The administration says there is no problem



The paper publishes the Department of Transitional Assistance’s rebuttal to our earlier research and answers it claim by claim — then lays out eight concrete reforms lawmakers could adopt now.









“More than 70 percent of error cases in Massachusetts reflect households enrolled via the BBCE pathway.”