Illinois to lose $587M due to Trump’s budget bill, pay more for SNAP benefits, report says
The State of Illinois is projected to lose more than half a billion dollars in federal funding this fiscal year, due to President Donald Trump’s budget law, and pay more for SNAP benefits, according to a new report.
What we know:
Pritzker’s Office of Management and Budget initially said last year that federal funds to Illinois would decline by about $830 million. But an updated report released on Friday showed that actions taken by state lawmakers helped to reduce the impact to about $587 million in losses this fiscal year.
The new report comes just days before Pritzker is set to present his budget proposal this month for the 2027 fiscal year, which begins July 1.
According to the report, "Since October, budgetary pressure has only increased for Illinois and other states with Democratic Governors that have been targeted by the federal government for political retribution. Unlike the federal government, states across the country — including Illinois — are required to balance their budgets, and as repeatedly stated, Illinois cannot backfill billions of dollars as the federal government makes reductions."
Illinois, like all states, receives a significant amount of money from the federal government every year to fund basic functions and provide services to its 12.7 million residents. The federal money is primarily used for healthcare, social services, education, public health, infrastructure, and environmental projects, according to the report.
By the numbers:
In fiscal year 2025, the state received around $35 billion in federal funding, most of which, about $21 billion, was used for Medicaid, a government health insurance program for low-income people.
Federal changes to Medicaid will lead to reductions in federal funding for Illinois patients in the coming years, according to the report.
The governor’s budget team projected that by 2031, Illinois would see a loss of about $2.8 billion annually in funding for Medicaid, which covers about one in every four residents, or about 3.4 million people, according to the state.
In addition, starting later this year, changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as SNAP, will shift more of the burden of funding toward states.
That means Illinois will have to pay about $80 million more to keep funding the program, which feeds low-income residents. Nearly 2 million people in Illinois rely on SNAP benefits to buy their food each month.