Alabama Legislators Consider Tuition Plan Study

PHILLIP RAWLS

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama legislators unable to agree on a bailout for the state's prepaid college tuition plan may end up seeking a detailed study of the financial problems. But the program's leader says that's not enough.

"We need a cash infusion. A resolution to study it is not going to solve anything. Tuition has got to be paid," State Treasurer Kay Ivey said Monday.

Several bills were introduced in the Legislature's 2009 session to help the financially troubled program pay tuition for the 48,000 participants. But no bill has passed both houses of the Legislature.

Workers are repairing damage at the Statehouse caused by last week's flooding, and legislators will return Thursday and Friday for their last two meeting days.

"At this point, we are unable to get a bill through the Legislature," Senate budget committee Chairman Roger Bedford, D-Russellville.

Bedford, who was sponsoring one of the bills, and other legislators say the most likely action is to pass a resolution seeking a study of the Prepaid Affordable College Tuition Program by the state pension fund. A resolution can win House and Senate approval in one day, but a bill can't.