HB603 Alabama 2012 Session

Under existing law enacted in 2010, specified sums of money were appropriated over a period of years from the Educational Trust Fund to the Alabama Prepaid Affordable College Tuition (PACT) Program to make the program fully actuarially funded. Part of that law specifically encouraged the PACT Board to make financially beneficial changes to PACT rules, policies, and procedures as long as those rules did not violate the contractual relationship between a PACT purchaser and the PACT Board. The Alabama Supreme Court held that when it was subsequently determined the 2010 changes did not make the PACT Program fully actuarially funded, this provision prevented the PACT Board from entering into an agreement with PACT purchasers who were part of a class action against the board that would have given the purchaser the right to choose to have the benefits paid under the program at the 2010 level or have the amount they had contributed returned

Relating to the Prepaid Affordable college Tuition (PACT) Program, to amend Sections 16-33C-16 and 16-33C-20 of the Code of Alabama 1975; to add Section 16-33C-23 to the Code of Alabama 1975; and to repeal Sections 16-33C-17 and 16-33C-19 of the Code of Alabama 1975, to encourage solutions that address the actuarial deficit of the PACT Program; to grant the PACT Board authority to pursue such solutions; and to repeal any provisions potentially inconsistent with such solutions.