![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/DH1A9513.jpg?resize=790%2C527\")
<\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/DH1A9593.jpg?resize=790%2C527\")
<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nHammond says this lack of funding costs the district $1.6 million annually.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRight now, that\u2019s equivalent to 22 teachers here in Hays, so the quality of education is being impacted every time you make decisions in Topeka,\u201d Hammond said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lack of funding also impacts property taxes.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen you don\u2019t fund it and you\u2019re forced to transfer, it puts pressure to raise the mill levy,\u201d Hammond said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$1.6 million is equivalent to five mills in Hays and three and a half mills in Victoria, Hammond says.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Hammond says that some may be willing to pay those higher taxes to support schools, he says that should not be necessary. According to Hammond, the legislature ended its session with $2 billion in reserves. They also funded a rainy day budget of $960 million and collected $400 million over their predictions within the first two and a half months of the fiscal year.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome years that I was working in Topeka, they didn\u2019t have a dime,\u201d Hammond said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t have any money. In fact, they were spending money they didn\u2019t have, which I\u2019m always opposed to.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Hammond says that there is no longer an excuse.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo one\u2019s going to be able to stand up and tell me that we don\u2019t have the money to fully fund K through 12,\u201d Hammond said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hammond believes that as a Representative, he could effectively secure funding.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important that we make a change and that we really get a true advocate for Hays and Ellis County, \u201c Hammond said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The election will be on November 8. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BY ALICIA FEYERHERMPHOTOS BY CAYDEN SANDERS Kansas House District 111 candidate Ed Hammond held an event at Defiance Brewery on Wednesday. Hosted by Defiance\u2019s Todd… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":66461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3397,11],"tags":[14688,14480,14199,1300,14654,3565],"class_list":["post-66460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-area-news","category-news","tag-111th-house-district","tag-alicia-feyerherm","tag-cayden-sanders","tag-ed-hammond","tag-ed-hammond-for-ks-111","tag-kansas-house-district-111"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/DH1A9570.jpg?fit=6490%2C4327&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66460"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66465,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66460\/revisions\/66465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/66461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}