State lawmakers approve $10 million to bolster Colorado food banks as SNAP benefits dry up

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., center, is joined at left by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins as they head to a news conference to talk about SNAP food aid benefits at the Capitol in Washington on Oct. 31. (J. Scott Applewhite/The Associated Press)

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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., center, is joined at left by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins as they head to a news conference to talk about SNAP food aid benefits at the Capitol in Washington on Oct. 31. (J. Scott Applewhite/The Associated Press)

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The Colorado legislature’s Joint Budget Committee on Thursday unanimously approved allocating $10 million from the state’s reserves to shore up food banks and food assistance programs as federal SNAP benefits remain suspended during the government shutdown.

But nonpartisan staff emphasized that Colorado does not have the financial resources to cover the full scope of lost benefits.

“It is effectively us trying to plow a field with a fork. The scale of this particular emergency vastly outstrips any ability for the state to mitigate it in any truly meaningful way,” said Tom Dermody, the JBC’s chief legislative budget and policy analyst.

Dermody presented the $10 million proposal from the governor’s office to the budget committee and said it falls far short of replacing the $120 million per month the state currently receives in federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, which supports 600,000 Coloradans with grocery costs.

“It’s the best that the state has. We don’t have the mechanism to actually step in and provide that funding,” he said.

Food banks’ ability to buy food at steep discounts means the $10 million could translate into $50 million worth of groceries for households.

The state funding will be distributed through grants to Feeding Colorado, which will allocate funds to the state’s most in-need food banks.

“The south and southeast part of Colorado has proportionally more SNAP recipients in terms of their population than anywhere else in Colorado,” said Dermody, describing where some of the funds will go. “So my understanding is that there will be a focus to send assistance, whether financial or actual food products, to those communities.”

But the two Republicans on the JBC, Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer and Rep. Rick Taggart, expressed frustration that the money won’t be going to every part of Colorado.

“It’s not a statewide solution,” said Kirkmeyer from Weld County. “We have no guarantee where it’s getting to. We know it’s not even close to the amount of dollars that are needed to provide the food that will be needed for food security.”

Nonpartisan staff agreed that it’s not statewide, and said the solution was “riddled with holes.” Colorado is among about two dozen states suing the Trump Administration, demanding it tap into a congressionally approved emergency reserve fund to keep SNAP benefits going as the shutdown continues.

Kirkmeyer criticized the governor for using reserves, arguing the state should draw from its disaster emergency fund instead.

“This is an emergency in this state regardless of why it’s caused, whether it’s man-made or natural made,” she said. “This is an emergency in this state, where we have 600,000 people who are not going to have food security. And we’ve got people back at the federal level, blame it on whoever you want, it’s happening.”

Colorado’s nonpartisan budget director and Democrats on the committee noted that even if the state used emergency funds, Colorado would still need to repay that money with general budget funds next year, something Kirkmeyer disputed.

Taggart, who is from Grand Junction, said he understood the challenge of using limited state reserves.

“But I also realize this is food, and I’m scared to death because I’m from one of those regions that relies on this,” he said.

Democratic Rep. Emily Sirota of Denver, who also sits on the JBC, called the suspension of SNAP benefits a federally induced “disaster” and said she wondered how Gov. Jared Polis came up with the $10 million figure.

“What I hear is this is the best that we feel we can put forward from the state at this time,” she said, noting there is a lot of pain the state has to plan for ahead — like spiking health care costs — all while contending with its own budget shortfall.

Other Democrats on the committee also lamented the troubles caused by the government shutdown. Congress has been at an impasse since September, with Democrats demanding that the next round of government funding extend expiring health insurance subsidies, while Republicans say the two issues must be considered separately.

“This shutdown could last for months, and then we are having looming disaster after disaster,” said Sen. Judy Amabile, a Boulder Democrat who sits on the JBC. “People are going to start to have to choose between eating and paying their rent, between paying their rent and paying their utilities. And we are going to see a massive amount of suffering.”

Ballantine Communications Inc. has created resource guides specific to Montezuma County, Dolores County, San Juan County, N.M., and La Plata County with information about free food, grocery support and SNAP benefits. To view the resource guides, visit:

• Montezuma County Cares: https://www.the-journal.com/montezuma-county-cares/

• Durango Cares: durangoherald.com/durango-cares/

• San Juan County: https://www.tricityrecordnm.com/san-juan-county-cares/