Vaughan Still Focused on Free Enterprise

It’s been almost 18 years since Don Vaughan, an attorney in Greensboro elected to the state Senate in 2008, began his public service career by winning a position on the Greensboro City Council in 1992. Although time has passed, Vaughan has stayed true to the passions that first motivated him to consider public service.

“Now I’m a middle-aged lawyer with a 9-year-old daughter, but I’m still dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and the Constitution,” said Vaughan. “I’m still on the very same mission — preserving the free enterprise system is more important than ever. I certainly have more experience, as a seasoned young man in my 50s rather than a young man in my 30s. I’ve had a long career in public service, but every day I learn something new.”
Vaughan’s first job was working as a summer playground director for the city of Greensboro, making 90 cents an hour, and while he noted that his current position doesn’t pay much more, he said he feels right at home in the North Carolina Senate.
 
“I love my job,” he said. “This is the most wonderful group of leaders, and they all want to move North Carolina forward. They give it their all; despite long hours and long meetings, everyone is extremely dedicated to the task.”
 
While Vaughan was reluctant to run for city council in 1992, filing to run for the seat only five minutes before the deadline, he says that he wasn’t at all hesitant to run for the Senate seat vacated by Kay Hagan.
 
“I felt I could effectively represent Greensboro and its citizens,” he said. “I knew the players and the issues well by that point. I was prepared for public service, and I knew the community and knew that I could lead.”
 
The task isn’t always an easy one. Vaughan noted that he came to the General Assembly during the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Resources, he noted, are tight, but there are still a variety of pressing issues that need to be addressed. But Vaughan, who has been a member of the North Carolina Chamber since 1975 and who is a former member of the organization’s board of directors, has a simple principle for directing his time in office.
 
“My basic premise is that government ought to stay off the backs of businesses,” he said. “The less government, the better. Businesses are struggling, and we need to not over-regulate them.”
 
To Vaughan, one of the most important of the many pressing issues he’ll face in the state Senate is modernizing the tax code.
 
“Modernization is desperately needed to adjust for the new economy,” he said. “The current tax code was developed in the 1920s and 1930s and was based on an entirely different economy, when tobacco, textiles and furniture dominated the economic scene. Today, the economic drivers in my district are the aerospace industry and high-tech logistics firms — industries that couldn’t have been envisioned when the current tax code was developed.
 
“The tax base needs to be broadened,” he added, “and we need to move away from dependence on the sales tax.”
 
He noted that there will be many factors to consider in process, but mentioned Internet sales specifically, noting that other states have tried to tax Internet sales and the results have been “painful.”
 
Another key issue for the General Assembly will be modernizing the civil liability rules. Vaughan noted that he can’t predict how the issue will be resolved, but that his experience enables him to see both sides of the topic clearly.
 
“As a lawyer, I’ve seen unfairness, but as a businessman, I understand the needs of business to not be overburdened with civil litigation,” he said. “I look forward to tackling the issue in the next session.”