One of many we expect and hope to get today...this is the first and I think we should thank his office for an immediate response....thanks Chip and Lt. Gov. Folsom for your words...

Quoting the Lt. Gov. office this morning:

Dr. Huckaby:

Governor Folsom's position on,  and commitment to,  this issue has not changed - He feels that all PACT obligations should be met and anything less will be unacceptable.  Period.  But, as with any legislative undertaking, it is best to focus on the ultimate goal and not ride the ebb and flow of the process that , as you heard last night, can be somewhat frustrating.

We remain committed and optimistic that positive action will be taken before the session ends.  As you know, SB581 is not the only possible remedy for PACT.  There are other steps - some short-term -  that can be taken to secure the investments of PACT members. 

While the law restricts the financial commitments that a legislature can impose on future legislatures, we remain in a position to adequately remedy any short-term crisis, and are firmly committed to doing so.  We then are in a position to follow up with appropriate action in the future that takes into account the then-current condition of financial markets, PACT assets, etc...  As this is a fluid situation, it would be imprudent and counterproductive to attempt a static remedy that - depending on future developments - could well prove inadequate. 

But - and let me stress this point - the ultimate goal is to secure the investments of PACT members and fulfill the program's commitment of college tuition payments.  At a minimum, I am confident that a strongly worded Senate Resolution will be introduced that positively addresses the immediate concerns of PACT members while articulating a firm commitment to fulfilling the programs long-term obligations.

Please stay in touch,
Chip

Chip Hill
Director of External Affairs
Office of  Lt. Governor Jim Folsom, Jr.
State of Alabama

Dave, I think we all agree that the 529 plans are a totally different beast.

Listening to the Senate audio last night though, I could understand how anything could get confused down in Montgomery.

Although we may not get firm legislation passed this session, I believe it will give us a breath to firm up many of our positions and discover some of the failings of the PACT board...then move forward to a better solution to assure all contracts are honored.

The cofounder's, Patti, Rebecca and myself, along with many of you believe we need to become very much more organized and increase our active support base into the thousands.

There are still too many silent supporters that I know are worried about their PACT contracts but are not expressing their opinions on our board yet.

We need to directly contact every PACT contract holder but by design, the list has not been forthcoming...got any ideas on retreiving it?

Amen...you have got to listen to the SenateLIVE audio feed going on now!

The part I was listening too a few minutes ago was two people arguing and was an embarrassment to the state...unbelievable waste of precious time...now its a computer reading the general fund budget bill...

Tune in now...this is live as of this post 10:20pm EDT

http://www.legislature.state.al.us/audi … audio.html

Email reply directly from Senator Bedford Monday night 5/4, the orginator of SB581:

Wrong [we] can pass this week.

  Hope we can get it done !!

  Thanks,

  Roger

In a message dated 5/4/2009 12:10:19 P.M. Central Daylight Time, [Huckaby] writes:

My understanding is that the last day for the Senate to pass a bill on the Senate floor is tomorrow Tuesday, May 5, 2009. That would have to pass and go to the House and be passed and final before May 18th, 2009, the last day of the regular session.

The next session starts in January of 2010…a long time to practice marching!!!!!

Richard Huckaby
Cofounder, SaveAlabamaPACT.com

GO ROGER>>>Git er done...please!!!!

SaveAlabamaPACT is supporting SB581 Amended as posted April 16th on ALISON (Alabama Leg. website)

11399-4 : g : 04/16/2009 : BEDFORD / ma
SENATE F&TG COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR SB581, AS AMENDED

CALL...CALL and keep calling today to you Senator...let them know we are out there!...see the home page of our website...they is over a thousand other bills out there....we are one of them!!!

They need to hear our voices!!!

Thanks Dave for your strong voice and support...calling the lobbyists for the universities is a great idea. They need to hear something besides their own voices. I spoke with Jones personally...avidly against RB581 in any form.

Per my sentator on Friday, the Rules commitee has final say on which bills will be read on the Senate floor on Tuesday, May 5th when they reconvene. It is her understanding that this will be the last day for new bills this session, without a special session. She had no idea at the time we spoke whether SB581 was on any agenda to be read...but she felt it would, and others say their senators say similar...

Call...Call...Call your senators and let them know you demand that a SB581 version be read and passed this session...otherwise it will be next year before any chance of legislative action.

Call Senator Bedford's office and show support.

Call Senator Barron's office, Rules chairperson, and tell him how important a SB581 bill is and it must be read.

This is about it for this year in Montgomery if something is not passed.

No word today. Appears Paul Hubbert of AEA may be opposed to the bill.

Dave Wilcox,

Try the link on the front home page now, it should work fine.

The document can also be found under our DOCUMENTS tab.

Check it out!

Regarding the concerns about the University of Alabama System Legislative Update and their concerns of freezing tuition, a PACT supporter wrote:

Simple solution.....just make a PACT the same thing as a scholarship that state schools SHALL honor.  Solution: school's are only financially burdened for the difference between tuition and value of PACT. If PACT fails they won't get this money anyway (I believe Auburn and Alabama receive about 14% of their overall intake in tuition from the PACT program),  school's retain power to set tuition rates, school's retain their autonomy, PACT's are honored with the Full Faith and Credit of the state, state gets to save face meeting its obligations to participants, the solution is equitable (in the legal and common sense meaning of the word), terms of the contracts are honored without modification, most PACT participants attend state schools anyway, for the few who attend out of state schools the rate would be set by the Board at the tuition rate paid to state schools for PACT participants. 

This should be a reasonable solution for every one.  I could live with it.  Nothing is absolute, nothing is one way or the other, and we are all looking for a solution.  The problem with politics "spin".  When there are limited resources everyone tries to out do someone else to get their fair share.

Thanks to rem50's information, it appears the University of Alabama (UofA Legislative Update) is totally against SB581 per my conversation with their office. Seems bond issues and politics are a big factor.

I advise anyone who is an alumni of either Auburn University or The University of Alabama to contact them and find out why they oppose minimal tuition freezes for PACT students only until 2012? They have published and are distributing the Update listing above as we speak.

Come on Alabama & Auburn, I have a degree from both of your schools and as an alumni...for now don't ask me for an alumni donation!

Call um!!

It disappoints me greatly when I hear such language as "'It's like the state is picking winners and losers, when they were all affected by the same market conditions," he said (State Sen. Steve French, R-Birmingham).

Such misunderstanding of why each of us as PACT contract holders chose the PACT route to start with...because we did not want to take ANY chance with our children's education and that is exactly what PACT is: an assured education bound by the pact we made with our state of Alabama

The text of SB581 is posted on our Documents page of this website along with two "possible" alterations of the bill. We do not know the validity of the alterations at this time...listed as Sub1 and Sub2. The are just FYI...SB581 is the formal version as we know it at this time..

Legislative Proposals Click Here

ATTTENTION ON DECK, PACT CREW, NOW IS THE TIME WE NEED TO FOCUS...

I am passing along many comments from many important sources...they all have merit and we must find the common threads to focus our power on the Alabama legislators in a positive way..here are just some of the comments:

Comment:

They can't modify a contract by an act of the legislature.   That runs 
bad afoul of the law.
Legislature was in meltdown yesterday - nothing is getting done - and it is budget crunch time.
Those that have skin in the game (Folsom, ivey, byrne) are trying desperately to find a fix they can campaign on, but nothing is likely to pass this session.

Comment:
This [Bill SB581] is unacceptable..

"This bill would define the term tuition and

2 qualified fees for academic terms through the 2012

3 Fall Term as equal to the rate paid by the program

4 for designated beneficiaries for the 2009 Spring

5 Term at the eligible educational institution and,

6 thereafter, at a rate as determined by the Board of

7 Control of the Teachers' Retirement System based

8 upon the investment performance of the PACT Trust

9 Fund."

This equates to the state setting the payout rate!  In other words transferring the risk back for the lost they caused back to the participant AFTER the program has been looted.

Kay Ivey and the Board improperly invested the funds for the PACT program in high risk securities when the program was over 100 percent funded. There was no need to invest in risky securities lending.  These investments need to be looked into.  There needs to be an accounting.  The Board and Ivey by assuming risk that was unnecessary when the program was over 100 percent funded is a breach of their duty to participants.  They cannot now breach the state's contracts with participants and call it fixed.   

The contracts are for "Prepaid Tuition" not some undefined payout in an investment vehicle. 

If participants wanted to assume the risk of the stock market they would have just invested in the stock market.  Then if there were substantial gains the participants instead of the state would have gotten the benefit.
Under the program the state got any revenue after the funds obligations were met.

Now after contracting with participants the state wants to define tuition as a set rate according to the performance of the investment. 

There are many more...please read SB581 closely over the next fews days...SaveAlabamaPACT.com has not taken a position as to whether this is the best legislation available or not...the vote is still out...please post your concerns

OUR GOAL..NO EXCEPTIONS: No PACT contract holder gets left behind...NO ONE...NO exception to that!