The 25th Annual WRAM Farmer’s Breakfast took place on Friday morning. Senator Jill Tracy, State Representatives Noreen Hammond and Randy Frese, President of the Illinois Beef Association Joni Bucher, and others gave speeches at the event. Frese and all of the speakers echoed the same sentiments about Central Illinois’ farmers, and all the work they put in.
“Thank you all for what you do. It’s never to be taken lightly. You feed the world, you take care of your families, and you take care of your neighbors. God bless you, and be safe this fall,” Frese said.
Senator Tracy and State Rep. Hammond touched on the recently passed legislation for school funding that ended a four-year stalemate in Springfield.
“We re-did the formula. That is a major historical moment actually that it’s being re-done. It’s been talked about for a long time. We’re waiting on the figures. We looked at them before. I think they’re going to be very much like what I sent out to everybody earlier, which definitely shows that our area, and 98 percent of all school districts, are going to fair far better for holding out like we did,” Tracy said.
Hammond also believes this legislation is what downstate schools needed.
“I do believe that those of us that live in central and southern Illinois are going to fair very well with the funding. I tell my colleagues from Chicago – ‘You don’t own poverty. We have a lot of poverty in the areas that we represent as well’ – so it’s important that we address the needs of our school districts as well,” Hammond stated.
written by Jackson Kane
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