Senate PACT bill leaps first hurdle

By Dale Liesch (Contact) | Dadeville Record

Published Wednesday, January 27, 2010

State Sen. Ted Little’s bill to pay off Alabama Prepaid Affordable College Tuition participants passed its first test Tuesday.

The Senate’s Fiscal Responsibility and Accountability Committee unanimously approved the measure that would honor the contracts of the 45,000 participants by using $236 million from expiring bond issues from the state’s Education Trust Fund.

The committee approval means the bill will be read for a second time on the Senate floor before eventually coming up for debate and a vote.

“It gets a second reading on Thursday and we are trying to get it up for debate a week from (Tuesday),” Little said. “I think there is enough support for it that the pressure will be on to get it passed.”

The bill would pay out the remaining PACT contracts by securing funds from expiring bond issues starting in 2014 and moving through 2021. As the debt expires, money that would be used to pay that debt would go to support PACT instead.

While groups like Save Alabama PACT support Little’s bill because it honors the contracts into which they say the state entered, groups like the Alabama Education Association believe the bill needs to be tweaked in order to ensure that money taken out of education funds would be replaced.

“We don’t money going out of the Education Trust Fund without a way to put it back,” said Derek Taunton, AEA district 30 Uniserv director covering Elmore, Tallapoosa and Coosa counties. “The money shouldn’t be taken out because that money is used for schools.”

AEA Executive Secretary Dr. Paul Hubbert suggested two changes to Little’s bill during a public hearing last week. One change would force the tuition program to make 5 percent back on any future investments while another would cap at 2.5 percent per year any tuition increase on PACT students.

Taunton said the organization would continue to work with the legislature until its concerns are addressed.

“It’s not where you want to be, but obviously it’s not over until the legislature votes,” Taunton said. “We look at it as one of those hurdles along the way.”

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