State Treasurer Stacy Garrity pledged to visit all 67 counties during her campaign.

A scheduled visit to Carbon County last year was canceled amid the pandemic. But on Friday she made good on her promise, meeting with County Commissioners and officials from the Jim Thorpe Neighborhood Bank.

Garrity, a Republican who is a retired Army Reserve Colonel, sat down with members of the bank’s board. They discussed the state of the economy, and a program that she has proposed to encourage small businesses to help their employees save for retirement.

She said that during her visits around the state, she has found that residents share many common concerns about their state government.

“Whether it’s urban or rural - they want leadership that’s transparent, they want leadership that wants to get things done, and that doesn’t care who gets credit for it,” she said.

The Treasury is responsible for overseeing the commonwealth’s funds, which total more than $100 billion.

Some of its most popular programs are the PA 529 college savings program, which allows residents to save tax free toward college/technical school, and the PA ABLE program, which gives the same opportunities to people with disabilities.

Garrity’s office is also the custodian of more than $4 billion in unclaimed property, which belongs to residents and businesses. Wherever she goes, Garrity encourages residents to check a database on the treasury website to see if any of the unclaimed property belongs to them.

Some of the unclaimed property is valuables once stored in safety deposit boxes. Today they are stored in the treasury’s vault, which it calls the nation’s largest working vault. They include over 600 military medals and decorations, which Garrity has made it a priority to return to their owners during her tenure.

“What I tell people is, if they’ve seen ‘Ocean’s 11,’ our vault is way cooler than that vault,” she said.

Garrity said she was excited to check out the vault at Jim Thorpe Neighborhood Bank’s main office on Broadway.

Craig Zurn, president and CEO of Jim Thorpe Neighborhood Bank, said he was honored to host the state treasurer. They both share an interest in helping small businesses.

“When you have a person who is in a position of authority and who is in a position to help small businesses, you have our attention,” Zurn said. “We needed to get that message out to our businesses and business leaders, and that is the importance of this gathering.”

Garrity gave the group an early look at an initiative that she hopes will help those very small-business owners. Next week she plans to ask legislators to pass legislation which will create a program similar to PA 529 or PA ABLE, but for employees who want to save for retirement. She hopes it will help the 2 million Pennsylvanians who have zero retirement savings in the bank. The more people who begin saving, she said, the fewer who will have to rely on government assistance.

“It helps taxpayers and it helps employers,” she said.

The program, known as Keystone Saves, would provide an alternative to a proposed federal program which Garrity said puts too much burden on small businesses. It could also provide an additional incentive for businesses struggling to fill vacant positions.

Garrity said her tour has shown her that no matter what county they live in, Pennsylvanians want the state to be a land of opportunity for their children and grandchildren.

“No matter where they are from, my message is: I’ll be the fiscal watchdog for our taxpayers every single day, I’ll hunt for ways to save taxpayer money, I’ll make sure our savings programs work for our hardworking Pennsylvania families, and I’ll do everything I can to bring opportunity,” she said.