Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, said, "We are in a difficult economic situation. How we are going to come out of it is going to depend on some of the decisions we make now." The fund she wants to tap to help out the higher ed budget has $25 million in it, Ringo said, and the only draw against it is for a building project in the Plummer-Worley School District, which is expected to cost $11 million. "There are monies available there, and I don't see letting them lay there when we can put them to good use," Ringo said. Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, said she's backing Ringo's motion mainly because it keeps CAES funded, which she said is having important economic and research impacts. "I think as a Legislature, we have an obligation to continue to fund higher education just for that very reason," she said. "The whole way we fund higher ed is just so much on the backs of our students."
 

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