By Bayne Hughes
Staff Writer

Three candidates for Alabama state treasurer agreed Monday night that the state has a moral obligation to fully fund the state’s Prepaid Affordable College Tuition Program.

Republican George Wallace Jr. and Democrats Jeremy Sherer and Charley Grimsley told the Morgan County Save Alabama PACT meeting at Decatur’s Microtel Inn and Suites that they differ about how the state should save the financially challenged program.

Sherer said the first step the state Legislature should take is to pass a resolution committing to funding the tuition program after spring 2010.

His long-term solution is approving the use of $400 million of abandoned and unclaimed funds in the state treasury.

Grimsley said the state has a bond issue that pays off in 2015, the same time the tuition program is scheduled to run out of money.

He said the state could use money saved through the end of bond payments to continue funding the program in the short term.

Grimsley said the long-term fix should include freezing tuitions.

He didn’t mention Wallace’s name, but he criticized the tuition program’s setup because it didn’t cap tuition increases.

Wallace was state treasurer in 1990 and involved in starting the program.

Wallace, who is opposed by Southside businessman Terry Dunn in the Republican primary, said the Legislature should a combination of interest from the Alabama Trust Fund, federal stimulus funds and interest from the abandoned and unclaimed fund.

Wallace said the program’s recent stock market recovery will offset some of the estimated $1 billion needed to fix it.

State Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, and Reps. Micky Hammon, R-Decatur, and Ronald Grantland, D-Hartselle, said they support fixing the fund and urged Save Alabama PACT to continue its push for a solution.