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Required Reading for Researchers, Investigators, Legislators, Engaged Citizens
03/24 UPDATE: I just received a reminder today that there are only 16 days remaining in the legislative session. The board indicated today that they will request assistance from the legislature to help PACT meet its obligations.
Communicate!
With your state Representative and state Senator. Use this zip code finder if you are not sure who represents you in Montgomery. Tell them you expect all PACT contracts to be honored.
Here is a letter you can Download and send to your representatives.
Phone, fax, and e-mail contact information.
More numbers: Board members, State Legislators
To connect with others working on this issue:
Left in Alabama: Connecting Progressive Voices in Alabama
SAVE Alabama PACT! Facebook Group
Save the Alabama PACT Facebook Group
Ongoing Coverage
Left in Alabama:
Where will Alabama PACT kids end up?
Paging Jim Folsom: Alabama Parents are Holding Out for a Hero
Everything I Know About the Alabama PACT
Part 2: Even Kay Ivey Agrees: Alabama’s PACT is a Contract!
My PACTS and Their Fictions, an investigative Series on the role of private companies in the management of PACT funds:
Part 1: My PACTs and Their Fictions
Part 3: Clueless Kay. And the Caymans.
Part 4: Do-it-Yourself Investigative Journalism
Part 5: Hitting Bedrock, or Why this Isn’t an Investment Plan
Part 6: What $3,926,219 Buys These Days
Part 9: Why, Oh Why Can’t These People Count?
PACT the Tenth: Calamity Kay and the Summer of 2008
Part 11: Felony Theft Conviction? No Problem. Welcome to the Board
Part 12: What Went Right in Florida
Part 13: What Does Prepaid Mean to You? And Bankruptcy?
March 24 PACT Board Meeting Coverage
Preliminary Report by Countrycat at Left in Alabama.
Board Meeting Mothership at Left in Alabama
Option to Dissolve PACT Rejected (with video)
Options for PACT Future (with video)
Program Evaluation
Basic analysis of the investment strategy
Further analysis and discussion of the “Guarantee.”
Coverage of the March 12 Public Hearing
Part 1: Alabama PACT Board has Lost the Trust of PACT Parents
Part 2: My Statement to the Alabama PACT Board
Part 3: Is the Alabama PACT Board Going to Hell?
Part 4: Alabama PACT Parents Offer Solutions at the March 12 PACT Meeting
Part 5: True or False: Alabama PACT Parents Were Just Dumb Investors
Direct link to Youtube clips from the hearing, about 15 minutes of video in all.
Critique of the meeting notification and process:
Coverage of Public Statements
State Treasurer Kay Ivey:
Remarks on March 21 at Huntsville AL
Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom, Jr.:
Rep.Artur Davis:
Additional coverage at Left in Alabama:
Alabama College Saving Fund Tanks (initial report and discussion)
PACT and the 2010 Governor’s Race
Document Collections
Alabama Treasury Department Official Website:
Collection of PACT Contract-holder Ken Gamble
*Several of these documents were changed on our about March 13. I have the documents as they were posted on the site prior to the March 13 update.
Additional Websites to Watch:
geneo’s blog at Correntewire.com
Time and space do not allow me to provide links to specific items or list the traditional media organizations that have covered this issue. I am grateful to those news organizations that have used their editorial pages to insist that the state of Alabama honor the contracts held by PACT participants, and to reporters who have asked questions and written about this issue over the past month.
I am also grateful to the many people who have contributed time and effort toward studying and resolving this issue.
Contact me at: gene DOT 0 AT comcast DOT net
Or see the Facebook link at the top of the sidebar.
5 Comments so far
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http://geneo.wordpress.com/alabama-pact-project/
Comment by Gene'O 22 March, 2009 @ 11:34 pmhttp://www.keepyourpromise.info/
good site here.
Comment by Gene'O 23 March, 2009 @ 12:38 amUPDATES:
3/24, 7:30 p.m. Added:
1. Preliminary coverage of the March 24 board meeting
2. “My PACTs and their Fictions,” Part 8: Waiting
3/25
12:46 a.m.
Added “Meeting Analysis . . . by Mooncat” added to board meeting coverage.
8:25 p.m. – Added “My PACTs and their Fictions, Part 9: Why, Oh Why Can’t These People Count?”
3/26
9:20 p.m.
Added “Me and My PACTS, PACT The Tenth . . .” and added a category for coverage of the legislative fight.
4/01
12:00 a.m.
Added “My PACTS and Their Fictions, parts 11 and 12;” two posts on the March 24 Board Meeting and “Where Will PACT Children End Up?” from Left in Alabama; “Everything I Know About the Alabama PACT, PART 1: Basic Organization,” and moved the link to SaveAlabamaPACT.com link up, since that site is now live. (I also posted a news roundup at Correntewire today: http://www.correntewire.com/alabama_pact_roundup)
4/02 10 p.m.
Comment by Gene'O 24 March, 2009 @ 7:35 pmAdded links to:
“My PACTS and Their Fictions, Part 13″
“Everything I Know About the Alabama PACT, Part 2″
Note to passers-by.
Most of your community newspapers should have received a link to this page by now. Might want to ask them what they think of our work!
Comment by Gene'O 26 March, 2009 @ 1:29 amIt is crystal clear the next steps for the State Legislature:
1. Call for Kay Ivey’s immediate resignation. She has lost all credibility and public trust therefore her office, her party, and her allies can no longer afford her as a political liability.
2. Pass a bill that eliminates the PACT board, terminate all employees and fire immediately the investment manager.
3. This bill should also transfer responsibility of on going management of the PACT program to same person responsible for the state’s 529 plan.
Furthermore, this person and dept should be reorganized to report directly to Dr. David Bonner for oversight, direction, and investment policy.
4. Finally, the bill should contain a provision to provide a contingency fund to “loan” PACT funds in any given year where tuition payments might exceed the minimum reserve threshold of assets as established by Dr. Bonner’s investment policy. In this manner the PACT program remains solvent, and any funds “borrowed” by PACT from the established contingeny “guarantee” from the State’s general fund, must be repaid with interest from future investment earnings from PACT. This way the taxpayers are only footing the bill temporarily, and will ultimately be repaid.
My 1993 contract does have the word “guaranteed tuition” for four years. My daughters enters UA fall of 2009 and I fully expect PACT to meet it’s legal (not just moral) obligations.
Comment by jiminatlanta 27 March, 2009 @ 12:36 pm