NYC NOW - December 14, 2023 : Evening Roundup

Episode Date: December 14, 2023

Governor Kathy Hochul is dedicating nearly $60 million in state money to improve drinking water and septic systems on Long Island. Plus, New York has a new state law designed to keep medical debt from hurting your credit rating. Also, compost collection sites at New York City’s greenmarkets have been saved by an anonymous donor. And finally, WNYC’s Tiffany Hanssen and Michael Hayes discuss a New Jersey law that, if signed, would lift restrictions on its breweries.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. We begin on Long Island, where Governor Kathy Hochle is dedicating nearly $60 million in state money to improve drinking water and septic systems. Hoco says most of the money will go to Suffolk County water companies. In addition, more money will go towards preventing nitrogen, which comes from sewage and leaking septic tanks, from polluting ocean waters. Officials say nitrogen pollution is partly responsible for many beach closures. Back in June, several towns on Long Island were among the places that reached a $10 billion settlement with Minnesota-based chemical manufacturer 3M and others after their chemicals were found in drinking water.

Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency say the chemicals, one of which is known as P-F-A-S, are likely carcinogens. In Albany, a handful of bills have been signed this week by the governor. Among them, a new state law designed to keep medical debt from hurting your credit rating. WMYC's John Campbell has more. The new law prohibits doctors, ambulance companies, and other health care providers from sending unpaid medical debts to credit reporting agencies. The governor says medical bills aren't a fair way to judge whether someone can manage their money. It wasn't mismanagement or a character flaw that brought you to this place. It's just expenses you didn't count on in life.

The law took effect. immediately. The governor still has several dozen bills to sign or veto before the end of the year, including measures that would ban non-compete agreements and create a committee to study reparations for slavery. In New York City, compost collection sites at green markets have been saved. At least for now, an anonymous donor offset looming budget cuts. WNYC's Sophia Chang has the details. Grow NYC, which runs the green markets, won't say how much the donation was, but it's enough to keep the sites running until June and prevent dozens of layoffs.

Chris Black is a compost coordinator at Grow NYC. He says the city needs to fully commit to environmental programs like community composting. We can't always rely on a very generous last-minute donation. We're really hopeful that it can become a permanent part of the city's funding. The GrowNYC collection sites were on the chopping block since Mayor Adams ordered budget cuts to every city agency, including the sanitation department.

Several other community composting groups are still facing the loss of their city funding. Stay close. We'll head to New Jersey after the break. Time is running out for New Jersey to revise and pass a law that will lift food and event restrictions on its breweries. A version of the law passed the legislature unanimously over the summer.

But Governor Phil Murphy says he won't sign it as is. And some brewers are worried their businesses could be in jeopardy if nothing gets done. For more on the law and where things stand now, my colleague Tiffany Hanson talked with WNYC's New Jersey reporter Michael Hayes. So let's talk about the restrictions on breweries. Tell us what they are specifically. So breweries in the state of New Jersey have been operating

with a list of restrictions hanging over their heads that they say significantly affects how they make money and draw customers in. The restrictions are mostly the product of a, special ruling handed down in 2019 by the state's division of alcohol and beverage control. And those went into effect in July of 2022. Now, since then, the ABC has taken a relatively hands-off approach and engaged in somewhat selective enforcement of these restrictions.

The restrictions include things like limiting breweries to 25 special events per year, not allowing them to partner with food trucks parked outside their facilities. and not being allowed to show certain sporting events. Well, you mentioned it went into effect in July 2022. So what happened this past summer with this bill? So in the summer, at the state legislature, unanimously passed a bill that did away with many of these restrictions on breweries. I'm no great government scholar, but unanimous sounds pretty good to me.

But then New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy issued what's known as a conditional veto, where he sent the bill back to the legislature and says he'll only sign it if lawmakers also help with some much broader liquor license reform. He wants it to be way easier in New Jersey for people to get a liquor license. That's what he's after. The governor did this despite the fact that he also says that he supports getting rid of these restrictions on breweries. He even called the restrictions ridiculous. This whole thing obviously has dismayed the breweries, some of whom worked for over a year with lawmakers on actually crafting and getting the bill passed. Well, let's talk a little bit about what Murphy does want.

He said he won't sign the bill. You mentioned some broader reform. So let's dig in there a little bit. Sure. So Governor Murphy ultimately wants to do away with prohibition-era rules that limit how many liquor licenses you can have in up to. particular town. He says he doesn't want to do things piecemeal, but his ideas for liquor license reform don't have the kind of overwhelming support the bill to help the breweries has. For instance, what Murphy is asking for now includes stuff like getting pocket licenses or liquor licenses

that aren't being used by businesses back into the market. Many stakeholders here, including the brewers, as well as the restaurant trade groups, would rather see the brewery bill. signed into law as it is now. Well, there's a bit of a time crunch for Murphy and for the Brewers, so let's talk about timeline a little bit. Yeah. So as I said, regulators came up with these rules in 2019, the restrictions, and they formally went into effect in 2022.

However, since this summer, the state has had a moratorium on enforcing them. But that moratorium is supposed to expire with the start of the new year. So now that Murphy has sent the bill back to the legislature, they have three. three weeks during what's known as the lame duck session before the end of the year to craft a whole new bill that they think he will sign. Part of what is making brewers nervous about this is that lawmakers are signaling that everything Murphy is asking for is way too much to get done in three weeks. Senator Vin Gopal, who I talked to, one of the key architects of the brewery bill, told me they're going to try to work up a new bill that Governor Murphy is willing to

sign, but it is accurate to say they're under a time crunch here. Well, what happens if they don't get something signed by the end of the year? Even before the moratorium, some brewers told me the state was essentially looking the other way as far as violations go because they expected lawmakers to work this all out. Brewers say they're basically in limbo now. No one seems to want these rules, but no one's announced a plan to postpone them. I spoke to Eric Orlando from the New Jersey Brewers' Guild. He's the executive director of the organization that represents the interests of breweries in the Garden State. And he told me that if the division of alcohol beverage control starts cracking down on breweries, it could mean that businesses face fines or even have their licenses

pulled or their businesses shut down. That's WMYC's New Jersey reporter Michael Hayes, talking with my colleague Tiffany Hanson. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every week three times a day. I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.