A spokesman for Vos did not immediately return a request Jan. 21 for comment. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu did not immediately respond to a separate request.

Republican legislative leaders have floated the idea of attaching the funding to a bill that would bar FoodShare recipients from using benefits to purchase sugary foods like soda and candy.

Johnson did not comment on whether she supported the idea. She called for urgency in addressing the funding shortfall, saying her biggest concern was the possibility of the state’s error rate getting too high and costing taxpayers.

The state faces tens, or even hundreds, of millions of dollars in additional costs if county and state workers commit too many errors in calculating FoodShare payments.

State officials expect the state’s error rate to be above 6% for federal fiscal year 2025 because of a change in how errors are counted, according to an October memo from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

If the state does not bring its error rate below 6% this year, taxpayers would be on the hook for anywhere from $68 million to $205 million in federal fiscal year 2028, according to the memo.

Under Trump’s tax and spending law, the higher a state’s error rate, the more it owes in benefit costs. Previously, the federal government covered the full cost of benefits for the food assistance program, while splitting administrative costs evenly with the states. Trump’s tax and spending law cut the percentage of administrative costs covered by the federal government from 50% to 25%, beginning in October.

Under Evers’ proposal, the state would add 56 employees and would increase funding for counties to hire an additional 76 workers to review FoodShare cases for accuracy and avoid errors, the memo says.

Last year, nearly 700,000 Wisconsinites per month relied on Foodshare benefits to pay for groceries, according to state data.

Addition of work requirements make FoodShare verification more difficult

New work and eligibility requirements for some FoodShare recipients also have complicated the process for reviewing cases and ensuring accuracy.

Work requirements that previously only applied to adults up to 54 years old without children now extend to all adults up to 64 years old without a child under age 14 in the home. The law also removed exemptions for veterans and homeless people.

State and county workers who determine eligibility for FoodShare have struggled to phase in the new work and eligibility requirements imposed by last summer’s law, amid a tight timeline to comply, confusing federal guidance and the interruption caused by last fall’s federal government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history.

Last fall, Wisconsin and other states sued the Trump administration over eligibility guidelines for the food assistance program related to non-citizens and argued the timeline for implementing the changes was unrealistic and inadequate.

“We have begun working with our counties to implement the work requirements and continue to update them as we get new information,” said Wisconsin Medicaid Director Bill Hanna. “It’s an ongoing process.”

In Dane County, older adults will be expected to comply with work requirements to remain eligible for FoodShare as soon as February, said Tanya Andersen, a spokesperson for Dane County Human Services.

Meanwhile, Brown County officials say they are awaiting more guidance.

“Trying to do this as fast as has been requested has been a challenge,” said Erik Pritzl, executive director of Brown County Health and Human Services.

Brown County leads the Bay Lake Consortium, which processes FoodShare applications for residents of Brown, Door, Shawano, Oconto and Marinette counties.

“It’s complicated work and our specialists go through a lot of intense training to do this. They have to be accurate about benefits, assess who’s eligible, and make sure people are getting the right amount of benefits,” Pritzl said. “Changes have to be implemented carefully and we want to get it right.”

Reporter Jessie Opoien, of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, contributed to this story.

Reporter Sarah Volpenhein can be reached at svolpenhei@usatodayco.com or at 414-607-2159.

Natalie Eilbert covers mental health issues for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. You can reach her at neilbert@gannett.com.