Category: Cost of Living
-
El Dorado County energy aid takes a single person earning up to $3,331.67 a month
A single person in El Dorado County can have gross income of up to $3,331.67 a month and still apply for help with energy bills. That is the one-person limit in the county’s 2026 income table, and El Dorado County Health and Human Services says its Home Energy Assistance Program is accepting applications now. The…
-
Pennsylvania food-stamp benefits went up this month under the annual adjustment
Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services says food-stamp benefit amounts rose on October 1 and that no recipient will see a decrease. The department’s release puts the average increase for most recipients at $18. The new amounts follow the annual cost-of-living adjustment from USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service and run through September 30, 2027. The department…
-
Food stamps already cannot buy soda or sweetened drinks in Indiana, Utah, Idaho, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas, Florida and Arkansas, where purchase limits are running now
Eight states have already passed the dates USDA listed for limits on what food stamps can buy, and SNAP shoppers there are living under those rules now. The states are Indiana, Utah, Idaho, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas, Florida and Arkansas. Every one restricts a soda, soft drink or sweetened drink, and seven of the eight add…
-
Iowa residents 60 and older could apply for heating help from October 1, and everyone else can apply from November 1 until April 30
Iowa’s winter heating help has been open since October 1 for households with someone 60 or older, and everyone else can start applying on November 1. The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, takes applications for the rest of the winter, through April 30, 2027. That makes two groups and three dates:…
-
St. Louis homeowners 62 and older can apply to freeze part of their property tax bill from March 1, 2027, on homes with a market value up to $528,392
St. Louis will not take applications for its senior property tax freeze until March 1, 2027, but the rules are already posted, and they turn on one number: $528,392. The City of St. Louis Assessor’s Office says that is the most a home can be worth, in market value, and still qualify. The freeze is…
-
Ohio homeowners 65 and older in Franklin and Warren counties must get homestead exemption forms in by December 31 to cut next year’s property tax bill
Ohio homeowners who are 65 or older have until December 31 to get a homestead exemption application to their county auditor. That cutoff is the same in Franklin County, home of Columbus, and in Warren County, whose auditor works out of Lebanon. Both counties treat the end of the year as the last day for…
-
Food stamps can still buy soda and candy in Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee and West Virginia after a federal court vacated USDA’s approval of their purchase bans
A federal court order issued June 22 is the reason food stamps still buy soda and candy in Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee and West Virginia. The order, in Aragon et al. v. Rollins et al., No. 1:26-cv-00861 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, vacated USDA’s approval of each state’s purchase limits. USDA’s…
-
Food stamps will stop buying candy, soft drinks and energy drinks in South Carolina on November 1, and sweetened drinks and candy in North Dakota the same day
South Carolina and North Dakota are the two states where USDA’s food-restriction table shows a November 1 start for new limits on what food stamps can buy. The program, formally the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, puts benefits on an EBT card that shoppers swipe at the register. In both states, candy and sweetened…
-
Honolulu’s home exemption for owners 65 and older rises to $180,000 on July 1, 2027
Honolulu homeowners who are 65 or older are in line for a bigger property tax break beginning July 1, 2027. The City and County of Honolulu’s Real Property Assessment Division lists the home exemption for older owners rising from $160,000 to $180,000 on that date, while the amount for all other owners goes from $120,000…
-
Allegheny County’s Act 50 homestead filing, due March 1, saves most filers about $115.74
Every Allegheny County homeowner who lives in the house they own can ask the county to leave the first $18,000 of assessed value off the tax bill, and the application is due March 1. The county’s Act 50 page says the homestead exclusion “results in $115.74 in annual savings of county taxes for most constituents.”…