As excerpted from Maryland Matters:

It won’t happen immediately, but advocates and state officials are predicting that changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the budget reconciliation bill signed last week will deliver “a devastating blow” to many of the 680,000 Marylanders who get SNAP benefits.

The biggest change that recipients will see are new work requirements for some able-bodied recipients that analysts say many Marylanders simply will not be able to meet, for a number of reasons.

The bill also includes a massive shift in costs from the federal to the state governments. Currently, the split administrative costs for the program 50/50 and the federal government pays for all the costs of the actual benefit.

Beginning next year, states will pay 75% of administration, at a cost of $172.5 million, according to estimates from the Maryland Department of Human Services. A year later, they will pay for up to 15% of the actual benefits, according to a formula based on current performance. Maryland will pay the most, 15%, at a cost in current dollars of $240 million.

The bill also caps future benefit increases at the rate of inflation and limits eligibility to citizens and lawful permanent residents; refugees and asylum-seekers would be kicked off the program.

The Urban Institute estimated this month that about 369,000 Maryland families would lose some or all SNAP benefits. Of those, 81,000 would lose an average of $150 a month — the current average monthly benefit in Maryland is $180 — and 51,000 families with children would lose and average of $81 a month.

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SNAP cuts could also affect some businesses in the state: For groceries that get a significant amount of their business from SNAP recipients, the reductions could pose a threat.

Maryland Retailers Alliance President Cailey Locklair said there’s no indication yet whether that will happen. But any reduction in consumer spending could have a serious impact on grocers, she said, given the industry’s low average profit margins of 3% or less.

“I have some retailers where the majority of the revenue that’s coming in is from individuals who are receiving benefits,” Locklair said. “So the sheer viability of some of those brick-and-mortar retailers in communities that are underserved is going to be contingent on the same level of spending going on.”

Click here to read the full article from Maryland Matters.