By Jacob Probus, News Editor

A roomful of worried PACT parents turned out for SAVE Alabama PACT’s Etowah County meeting — the group’s 30th such meeting across the state. They heard from a gubernatorial candidate and two state treasurer candidates — and the group’s energetic founder and de facto leader, Patti Lambert, of Decatur.

Lambert, a concerned PACT contract owning parent herself, started a Save Alabama PACT facebook group to rally other PACT parents. The facebook group led to a website —www.savealabamapact.com — which now has over 1.5 million hits.

Now the group is trying to turn the 45,000 contract owners into a voting block that can influence 2010 contests and force the PACT Board to honor their contracts in full.

“I started off selfishly thinking of my six,” Lambert said. “As I go to bed at night, I feel the pressure of 45,000 kids’ educations.”

At the meeting, Republican Gubernatorial candidate Robert Bentley pledged his support of PACT parents.

“This is not only a moral obligation, it is a legal obligation for the State of Alabama to honor every PACT contract and to honor it in full,” Bentley told the attendees.

Bentley said it “might be best” to get the Legislature to “take ownership” of PACT — “even if we don’t solve it this year because of budget constraints, contract owners can be at ease knowing it will be honored.”

Bentley, who is a state representative, explained a plan that he hasn’t submitted yet for the Legislature’s consideration.

His plan involves freezing the program from new members, taking out annuities from insurance companies that he said would cover all but $22 million annually, and covering the difference with money from the Alabama Trust Fund.

The candidate said with attrition of students, 10 years in the program would begin to turn a profit again and they could repay the trust fund.

Taking money from the trust fund would require a vote of the people and the citizenry would be wary of bailing out the PACT program, the candidate suggested. He said you would have to sell it as a loaning the program money.

State Treasurer candidates Jeremy Sherer, a Democrat, and George Wallace, Jr., a Republican, both agreed that the state is obligated to fulfill the PACT contracts.

Wallace was the state treasurer when the PACT Program was created and said he had a major role in the program’s inception. He referenced a study by the Retirement System of Alabama (RSA) CEO Dr. David Bronner in which Bronner said $50 million annually would save PACT.

Sherer said with the state’s roughly $10 billion annual budget, $50 million works out to less than two-tenths of a percent. He said the state shouldn’t have a problem raising $50 million annually in non-budget money to save the program.

Sherer was very critical of the PACT Board’s management of the program — “mismanagement” is how he put it, actually. He said 10-percent of PACT expenditures in 2009 went to investor fees — a proportion he said was irresponsible.

“Frankly I fault the PACT Board,” Sherer said.

When the stock market collapsed, the program was invested 80-percent stocks and 20-percent bonds, according to Sherer — stocks being the most volatile kind of investment. The board voted to reverse those percentages when the market was at its lowest point. Although the market is returning, the board has kept their investments at 20-percent stocks, so the program isn’t able to recoup losses with the market, Sherer explained.

The meeting ended with Lambert calling PACT parents to join the fight. Save Alabama PACT plans to be at the Legislature’s opening session this week, rallying on the Statehouse steps and attending the governor’s State of the State address.

State Representatives Jack Page and Blaine Galliher both gave PACT parents tips on contacting their legislators and getting their cooperation — the dos and don’ts — like do be polite and don’t scream.

“Don’t threaten — you can attract more flies with honey than vinegar — I know you want to, I don’t blame you,” Page told the parents.