Paula Kay, the democratic candidate for the New York Assembly, for the 100th District .
Kay is an experienced lawyer who has served various town and planning boards throughout Sullivan County for many years, and also served as Aileen Gunther’s first Legislative Director.
She currently resides in Rock Hill, NY.
We're joined in the studio by Paula Kay, candidate for New York Assembly's 100th District. Kay is an experienced lawyer who has served on various town and planning boards throughout Sullivan County for many years, also served as Aimee Lean Gunther's first legislative director. She currently resides in Rock Hill, New York. Welcome to the program and welcome to the studio. Paula. Hey, Jason. It is a privilege to be here. Thank you for the wonderful tour, the great facilities here at WJFF and we hope great things for the future of the station. Well, thank you. I mentioned briefly a total thumbnail background for you, but you want to share a bit more about your background and for the listener and also what inspired you to run for assembly? Certainly. So, my husband and I moved up here almost 30 years ago and immediately I got involved with the town of Thompson and with Assemblymember Jake Gunther. I have been the town of Thompson deputy town attorney for over 20 years and also the town attorney for the town of Fallsburg. I handled planning and zoning and municipal matters, worked with Aimee Gunther as you mentioned as her legislative director and also represent numerous EMS fire departments and community organizations as well as having a private real estate practice. We raised our two children, Jack and Jordan, here in Rock Hill where we have lived and they both graduated from Monticello High School and Jonathan and I are so proud to call Sullivan County and the 100th Assembly District our home. That's great. Well, so, you know, and with all of that, you know, Thompson deputy town attorney for 20 years serving with various organizations, what experience from your time in local service is going to inform your approach to state level politics. So, it's so important to listen, right? It's important to listen to people all over the 100th District. And my goal as Assemblymember is to represent each and every person, each and all organizations throughout the 100th Assembly District. And in my roles in the town of Thompson, the town of Fallsburg and representing the community groups and EMS and fire organizations, I've certainly learned a lot about the needs of this county and of Orange County, the town of Wauke Hill, the city of Middletown. But I've also been doing a real listening tour for the past seven months, talking to healthcare workers, nurses, doctors, teachers, students, administrators, people throughout the district, to really get a sense of what's going on throughout this district. You know, Sullivan County, Wauke Hill, Middletown are all very unique, have all very unique personalities and needs. We have the river towns, we have the villages, we have the city of Middletown, and all of them have been so well served by both Jake and Aileen over the last 30 years, in terms of both legislation and grants, and it is so important to continue that. So given all that, what would you say are the most pressing issues facing folks in these different communities in the 100th Assembly District right now? So first and foremost, healthcare, we need access to quality healthcare and by access, there are pockets of our community that do not have access to healthcare because there are folks who just simply do not have cars. Our healthcare services, especially in Sullivan County, we have fewer providers, partially because of the medical reimbursement rate in Sullivan County is lower than surrounding counties were treated as upstate rather than downstate. And so our healthcare workers deserve to have enough funds to feed their families. That is really important. So if you're going to make more money going a little bit south, you're going to work maybe in Orange County instead of in Sullivan County. We need to help our hospital to recruit new folks to work at the hospital. We need to help our healthcare providers and the way to do that is to increase our reimbursement rate. And that's something that I know Aileen has been working on and there have been incremental changes, we need to continue it and do more. We also need to access to transportation for healthcare is paramount in the city of Middletown. I was talking to a group of seniors. One of their problems, they can get access to doctors in the city of Middletown or Waukeill. But a lot of those providers have moved outside of the city of Middletown or Waukeill to Monroe, to actually Rock Hill and some further away and the access to transportation is only within Middletown or Waukeill. So these seniors now can't see the doctors that they've been seeing for years, we've got to fix it and I will fight for them. Another big issue in our area is housing, affordability of housing. It's a major concern across New York State, especially here in our region. How would you address the housing crisis in this district? That's a great question Jason and thank you for that. It's all about collaboration and I have promised from day one that I will work across the aisle and I will work with all of my partners to put together a housing plan. We have to work with our large employers, we have to work with developers, we have to figure out tax incentives similar to what the New York City and some of the larger cities like Buffalo get, we need to bring that here. We all need to sit down at a table and work together to figure out a way to make housing for the people who live here. And I mean, I mean kids coming back from college who can't afford quality housing here. I mean our seniors and our working families. It is not right that people are spending months and months and months looking for housing and have the inability to find quality safe housing in the 100th district. Now what steps would you take in terms of economic growth and job creation? Especially in a district that has so much rural areas. We need to work with our existing job creators such as the partnership in Orange County, the partnership in Sullivan County and the IDA in both counties. I think they're doing a great job to promote bringing in new businesses and sometimes the question becomes when a business comes to a planning board, new growth business comes to a planning board. There's often pushback and it is so important to have home rule in this state. So even though you may have a quality business with great jobs coming in, it is still up to the local planning board to make the determination which they do by following the law of the municipality as to whether or not that business belongs where it's being promoted. Do you feel like any changes need to happen at that level of the IDAs or like the partnership for economic development in Sullivan County or in Orange, like do they need to be doing anything different to address the job growth? Well, I do believe that we could again going back to housing because housing does promote job growth if we have more housing for people who live here or people who want to live here. I think that there may be a discussion to be had about providing economic incentives through the IDA for housing. Another key issue for voters is the environment. What are your policies and viewpoints towards environmental quality in the 100th district? So growth is important, but growth is also important with an eye on the environment. Air quality, water quality, protecting our farms, these are all things we have to look at. It's all a balancing act. We need growth and housing where we have the infrastructure that's already existing. We need to be careful about maintaining some of our rural areas outside of our villages and our cities, and we need to protect the farmers every chance we can. Along those lines of number one and two industries, at least in Sullivan County, still are tourism and the environment plays into that tourism appeal. And then agriculture is number two, so it's the environment's part of the economics here as well. Absolutely, we love to see tourists come here and utilize our rivers and float down. I love floating down the Never Sank. Sometimes it's a little hard to get out, but I love floating down the Never Sank. Coming to the Harvest Festival at Bethel Woods, going to the farm markets all summer and choosing our fresh products from local farmers, we are so lucky to have that. So what's your stance on public safety, and do you have any ideas about improving public safety and the justice system in your district? Yes, sir. So bail reform is not done. The state enacted bail reform, as far as I'm concerned, it's not working. We need to go back to the table. We need to fix it. Bail reform should be judge's discretion. The judges need to have the discretion to decide whether a alleged perpetrator is dangerous to our community. It's not a money issue. If there's two people who allegedly do a crime, it shouldn't be about who has the money to bail themselves out. It should be who is potentially dangerous. If they're both dangerous, they both spend the night in jail. If the judge determines, and again, it's the judge who's the expert, who's the professional, the judge determines that they are not a threat to society, that's a different story. But we need to go back to the table, bring the discretion back to the judges, back to the professionals, and again, it's not about money. And that's why four PBAs have endorsed me in this race because they know that I understand the needs of this community in regard to public safety. Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther represented this area for more than 20 years. And before that, her husband, Jake Gunther, represented it for about 10 years. So next year, 2025, it's going to be the first time in more than three decades that someone not named Gunther will be representing us in this district. What do you think of that? Well, I think that the most important thing here is that both Jake and Aileen have delivered for our district and that I'm the only candidate who will continue to do so. And I have history both with the state and with both Jake and Aileen. I worked for Jake. That was one of the first things I did when I moved to this county. I was his director of special projects and then helped Aileen out with her campaign and went on to be her first legislative director. So there's continuity here. I think it's really important. It's important for the district as a whole to continue the good work that Jake and Aileen have done to bring back to this district, to bring back to our fire companies, to bring back for mental health initiatives, to bring back for community organizations. And I will do that. You know, and as you mentioned, like working with the state and earlier, you brought an interesting angle to where we are at with health care, just in the way that this region is viewed, both like on paper and then perhaps in people's minds as well. I'm just wondering, in your experience working here in the region and then working with the state and whatever capacity you have, what is it about, what would you say this area's relationship is to the state and what is it that the state may not be getting about this area? Well, specifically Sullivan County, I think one of our issues is we do not have a county executive. And I think that it is time, I think a county executive could be our very biggest cheerleader. And I'm talking actually as the wife of a former county manager, okay, and he did an amazing job. But we need a county executive to take us to the next level. And we need a county executive who can interface with the state, just like all of the districts to the south and north can do on behalf of their constituents. Just a way, would it be then like Sullivan County has more of a seat at the table by having a focal prison like that? Absolutely. Well, so the last question I got for you is why, what would you tell voters, why should they vote for you over your opponent? Well, thank you. Again, I am the only candidate who will be able to continue the wonderful legacy of Jake and Aileen Gunther for over the past 30 years and continue to bring back to this district. And I'm the only candidate who will have a seat at the table to write, produce and support legislation to bring back money, to bring back grants, to help our first responders, and to really work with the people of the 100th Assembly District. And is there anything else that you wanted to talk about that we didn't get to? I think we've pretty much hit it, and I really, again, appreciate you having me here and also looking at this amazing facility that you have, and again, I wish JFF only the best. All right. Well, thank you so much for coming out to see it and for talking to our listeners. Thank you so much, Jason.
