Editorial
Lancaster New Era
As a longtime Washington County commissioner, Diana Irey Vaughan has the depth of experience to tackle the job of state treasurer.
Along with her fellow commissioners, Vaughan manages 52 departments and nearly 1,000 employees. She helps to oversee a county-owned nursing home, airport, parks and bridges.
Vaughan, 50, is a member of the Washington County Pension Board, which manages pension funds of county employees and retirees.
Also, she is a member of the county prison board, which oversees operations of a correctional facility that has one of the lowest cost per day per inmate in the state.
During her tenure, Vaughan and her colleagues balanced seven consecutive budgets without increasing taxes.
Vaughan credits her success at the county level to her conservative approach to governance.
Vaughan is not new to this approach, having been a young single mother who learned how to stretch a dollar. (Her husband of more than 15 years has served several tours of duty in war zones.)
Should she be elected treasurer, Vaughan promises a more conservative approach to help close the yawning gap between funding and benefits in the state’s two major pension funds that cover state workers and public school employees.
This is welcome news, as the governors and state Legislatures — past and present — have chosen to “kick the can down the road,” leaving taxpayers holding a billion-dollar pension bag.
While the office of state treasurer is larger and more complex and has more employees, the challenge is the same: to be a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars.
Vaughan has the tools and talent — and the right approach — to do an outstanding job.
The New Era urges that voters send her to Harrisburg to work on their behalf.
Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/767442_Vaughan-for-Pa–treasurer.html