Thursday night, it was my distinct pleasure to be the guest speaker to the Limestone County Democrats. There was a great crowd of ~80 loyal Democrats, with solid representation from local Democratic officials. It was a great opportunity to be around a county party that is energized and ready for the 2010 cycle.

I took the opportunity to inform the crowd about the major issues in the upcoming Treasurer’s race: resolving PACT; strengthening community banks; increasing financial literacy; and improving financial reporting systems so as to reduce financial mismanagement and corruption.

The message was well received by all, and I truly felt welcome. The Limestone County Dems are truly a great group of service minded individuals.

Also, today the Shelby County Reporter ran my retort to a speech that Treasurer Kay Ivey recently gave to the Calera Chamber of Commerce (Ivey Speech to Calera Chamber). Ivey stated to the crowd that PACT is “going fine” and that so long as the economy doesn’t take a turn for the worse, it will continue to be fine. Upon hearing her comments, I took great exception to them and for the sake of honesty and governmental integrity, I felt that I must share the whole truth regarding PACT’s financial state.

Below are the comments that I sent to the Shelby County Reporter in response to Ivey’s speech:

As a candidate to succeed Kay Ivey as Treasurer of Alabama, I was disturbed in reading the Shelby County Reporter’s article regarding Ivey’s speech to the Calera Chamber of Commerce. Ivey’s statements to the Chamber were disingenuous due to her glossing over the financial predicament of Alabama’s Prepaid Affordable College Tuition Program (PACT). Ivey’s assertion that PACT “is going fine” is formed in either ignorance or her own political protectionism. Ivey states, PACT is financially viable until approximately 2015. However PACT has financial obligations until 2032, and approach nearly one billion dollars. Simply because Alabama can afford the costs of PACT today, yet presently has no ability or plan to satisfy the increased costs of tomorrow, does not warrant Ivey to say that everything “is going fine”. Treasurer Ivey did preface her contentment with PACT’s present status in stating that all should be well “unless the market goes down further”. However, this past June the Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA) stated that the nation’s stock market would have to more than double its volume to approximately 20,000 to recover the more than $300 million in PACT devaluation that occurred under the oversight of Ivey. Ivey further misinforms by stating that RSA’s study on PACT’s viability found no evidence of financial mismanagement on Ivey’s part. However, RSA’s study did not evaluate Ivey’s past management of PACT. Though, the RSA study did vary numerously its forecasts of future costs and earnings versus those used by Ivey in her financial management of PACT. As Alabama’s next Treasurer, I will be committed to honoring Alabama’s PACT commitments and managing PACT more effectively than Treasurer Ivey. I will also speak with greater candor, in a spirit of principled, public service rather than the political protectionism evidenced by Kay Ivey in Calera.

I firmly believe that not only have the finances of Alabama, and in particular PACT families, been squandered over the previous seven years, but also Treasurer Ivey’s lack of forthrightness has led to an erosion of the trust within the Treasurer’s office. Not only will the next Treasurer deal with the issues that arise over their four year term, they must remediate the damage done over the previous seven years caused by the incumbent Treasurer.