As a mother of three, Assemblywoman Gunther understands the importance of providing our children with a quality education without placing the burden on taxpayers. She will stand up to any attempts by the governor to cut education funding and will fight to make sure our schools get their fair share of state aid – ensuring all schools have adequate resources, including funding for pre-K, smaller class sizes, top-notch teachers and updated technology. She recently worked to free-up $340,000 in funding that her late husband Jake secured for local schools.

Assemblywoman Gunther is a graduate of the SUNY system and has two children currently attending SUNY schools. She understands the impact tuition hikes can have on working families and students. That’s why she is fighting the SUNY Trustees' plan to authorize annual tuition hikes. She is working to make sure students continue to have access to an affordable higher education.

Assemblywoman Gunther has worked in the health care industry as a nurse for the last 29 years. She will use her insight to help make sure everyone has access to quality, affordable health care they deserve.

She is introducing legislation that expands the Family Health Plus program so more families are eligible for insurance coverage to keep them healthy.

In addition, she supports legislation that:

• holds HMO’s accountable – making sure they put patient care before profits (A.5490)
• institutes registered nurse-to-patient ratios to improve patient care (A.8560)

To help create the jobs our families need, Assemblywoman Gunther is working to ease our tax burdens and stimulate economic development through measures that will give businesses the tools to flourish and create jobs while minimizing the cost of doing business.

She is sponsoring legislation that:

• extends Empire Zone benefits to agriculture cooperatives (A.7451)
• creates agridevelopment zones to help stabilize and expand our farming industry (A.2083)
• helps small businesses gain access to loans up to $25,000 while providing business management training and technical assistance to enable these businesses to succeed and expand (A.6679)

She is also working on legislation to reform the state's property tax laws to help businesses and families by closing loopholes that allow some property owners to avoid paying their f+air share.