NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Taxes Dominate Discussion at Debate for NJ Governor, and Another NYC Casino Rejection

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

Gubernatorial candidates Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Democrat Mikie Sherrill largely wrangled over affordability issues in front of a raucous crowd. Meanwhile, a committee rejected a proposal to build a casino right next to the United Nations.

Taxes dominate the discussion at the debate for New Jersey governor. And another New York City casino rejection. From WNYC, this is NYC now. I'm Junae Pierre. We begin in New Jersey. Voters there have more than 50 days until they elect a new governor. On Sunday night, Democratic nominee Mikey Cheryl and Republican Jack Shudorelli met for the first time on the debate stage.

The two challenged each other on May. issues like affordability, cuts to education, and other federal dollars that the state gets. My attorney general is going to sue to clawback as much money from the federal government as we can. My attorney general will not be wasting your tax dollars suing the White House every other day. It's a waste of taxpayer dollars. WMYC's Mike Hayes was covering the debate and he's here to break down what happened. So Mike, for those of us who were tuned into Sunday night football, give us a quick overview of what happened. during the debate.

Oh, Jeanne, that game was horrible. You should have watched the debate instead of the game. Right. Let's not waste any time on that game. Yes, so this was the first of two debates between these candidates. Going into the night, Mikey Sherrill was leading Jack Chitterelli by about eight points in the latest poll. It was a town hall format.

So we had a lot of questions coming in from the audience. And, Janay, it was at times a raucous crowd. Rockest would be the word I would choose here. moderator at one point, she kind of gave up after a while trying to keep folks from yelling out and reacting mostly negatively to the candidates' responses here. The issues that dominated the discussion, though, were as expected, electricity costs, housing, taxes, and just general affordability concerns. And these two candidates, Janay, they've kind of been at each other's throats over the last few weeks sparring over attack ads, and they didn't disappoint in terms of

spicy exchanges on the stage last night. So a lot of talk about affordability. Did any one issue stand out from the debate, though? Definitely taxes. Definitely taxes. There was a moment during the debate where the candidates were asked if they'd commit to not raising the sales tax in the state. And Tritelli went first, and he gave an unequivocal answer of yes,

I will not raise your sales tax. But Mikey Sherrill had a very different answer, and here's what she had to say. I'm not going to commit to anything. right now because I'm not just going to tell you what you want to hear. You heard Jeney that got an ooh from the crowd at one point. And then she went on to say, Jack's not telling the truth when he says he'll do this. He's just telling you what you want to hear.

And this harkens back to one of Cheryl's attack ads that's been all over TV lately, where her campaign claims that Chittarelli is going to raise New Jersey sales tax to 10%. That would not be welcome news in the Garden State. Taxes are already very high due to inflation and what's going on with Trump's tariffs. He says that's not true. I'm not going to do that. And he doubled down on that last night. Okay.

What other moments are people talking about from the debate? Yeah. So we have to talk about the fist bump that wasn't. A 12-year-old boy named Mark was in the audience and he got a chance to ask a question. And boy, did he make the most of it. Here's what he said. I'm only 12, but I've already seen one of our U.S. senators go to prison. What's your vision for restoring public trust and government?

We should mention when he said, I've seen one of my senators go to prison. He's referring to Senator Bob Menendez, who's currently serving an 11-year prison term for bribery and corruption charges. But after he asked that question, Jone, Chitterelli walked over to him and tried to get the fist bump. And this young man left Jack Chittorelli hanging. So we're seeing this talked about a lot. Cheryl's campaign unsurprisingly shared a video of Jack not getting the bull. bump. It was a moment. Yeah, it kind of reminds me of the high five, download, too slow. That's perfect. I think that's what Mark was kind of going for there. Yeah, yeah. So how did national

politics come into Sunday night's discussion? All the biggest news stories out there got mentioned in some capacity during the debate. Jimmy Kimmel, Charlie Kirk's assassination, and, of course, the many goings on of President Donald Trump. One exchange that I thought, was really illuminating, came when a student at Ryder University, that's the school that was hosting the debate, he asked the candidates about how they'll invest in education given the Trump administration's, quote, dismantling of the Department of Education. Now, Cheryl responded first here. She said she would have her attorney general that she appoints sue to claw back as much of that funding as possible. And before he even got a chance to respond, Cheryl responded for

Jack Chitterelli and said he would not do the same. And Chittarelli, his response here was pretty interesting. He gave kind of a general, his general philosophy here. He said he sees suing the White House, quote, every other day as a waste of taxpayer money. So just a really illuminating moment on both these candidates' attitudes towards Washington. That's WMYC's Mike Hayes. Back in New York City, a proposal to build a casino right next to the United States, Nations is dead after a vote Monday. More on that after the break. There won't be a casino anywhere in Manhattan, at least not anytime soon. A committee rejected a proposal to build a casino right next to the United Nations. That was the third

such rejection in the last week. WMYC's Arun Finnacupal joins me to discuss the vote and what it means for New Yorkers. So Arun, Monday morning, there was a vote. What happened? So, Janay, this committee is known as Community Advisory Committee. There is one appointed to review every one of the eight casino projects that have been proposed across the five boroughs and then one in Westchester County. And these are political appointees appointed by the mayor, the governor, borough president, all the way down to a council member. They have lots of power. They can either advance a project to the final stage, or they can just reject it outright. In this case, they were reviewing a project located right on the East River immediately south of the UN.

It was supposed to have this underground casino, a couple hotels, this massive wellness center, a five-acre park for the public, and a museum devoted to democracy. Also, housing, and at the 11th hour, the developers said they were going to make all thousand-plus units, of housing entirely affordable, Jene. So why did they turn down this project? I heard from one of the appointees who was on the committee that reviewed this project. Her name is Reshma Patel. She was appointed by the local assembly member, Harvey Epstein.

And she said that she found the revenue projections to be overly optimistic. And that, in her experience, casinos in other urban areas rarely deliver on their promises. She said they're looking to create opportunity, stability in the area, and they don't want to risk traffic and crime and gambling addiction. Some of the local elected officials, all of whom their appointees voted against this project, they put out a statement today saying the community had voiced ample concerns about having a casino neighborhood and felt that it would bring quality of life concerns, as they put it. Now, Arun, this isn't the first casino that's been rejected, right?

Now, there's been three now in just a span of a week. Last week, a committee rejected what would have been a Caesar's Palace in Times Square. Another one said no to a casino in Hudson Yars on the west side of Manhattan. And Jeneen, in every one of these cases, the votes have been two in favor and four votes against. The only supporters have been representatives of the governor, Kathy Hokel, and the mayor, Eric Adams. You mentioned the casino proposal in Hudson Yards. Caesar's Palace. There are so many casino proposals these days. Why is that? Yeah, I mean, these are massive projects, you know, we're talking about billions and billions of dollars in investment for the construction and for the operation of these casinos. These have been years in the making, okay? And what happened is years ago in the 2010s, the state agreed to allow a number of casinos to come in operation. But they first wanted to give upstate. sort of a running start against downstate because they were worried if New York City had it, that nobody would go to one's upstate. So there were several casinos that were greenlit

upstate. They've been in operation for now 9, 10 years. We finally got to the stage where they're saying, okay, we're going to have some downstate as well. That's where we're at right now. It's been a very involved process, and we're very close to the finish line on this process. It's going to be basically by the end of this year we're going to know any of these projects are greenlit. That's exactly what I'm wondering. What's next here? So there's still five proposals that are coming up for their own votes. A couple of them are in Queens, one each in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and in Yonkers in Westchester County. What we do know is that the council member representing Coney Island, Justin Brandon, just put out a statement saying that he would not support the Coney, which is a casino proposed for that area in the Amusement Park District. So it's really not clear if that project has the votes to advance further.

Regardless, all the projects are going to get votes in the next eight days, really by the end of September. And whichever proposals do make it pass, their advisory committees are going to go to the final round, which is a decision by the state. And as I said, that's expected to happen by the end of this year. That's WMYCs, Arun Vanekapal. Fall has fallen. And the National Weather Service estimates this. year could be warmer than the seasonal average. Although meteorologists say long-term weather models are not as accurate as the common seven-day weather forecast. The autumnal equinox

happened at approximately 219 Eastern Monday afternoon. That's when the sun set directly over the equator. The Earth's northern hemisphere is now tilted away from the sun, making nights longer and the days shorter. Thanks for listening to NYC now. from WNYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.