NYC NOW - June 15, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: June 15, 2023

Daniel Penny, the 24-year-old former Marine charged with second-degree manslaughter for the subway death of Jordan Neely, has been indicted by a grand jury. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has scheduled his re-arraignment for June 28th. In other news, a tragic incident in Trenton sees authorities investigating the death of a three-year-old who reportedly accidentally shot themselves, according to the Mercer County Prosecutor's office. And finally, New Jersey's Democratic legislative leaders are quickly advancing a bill to halve property taxes for most seniors. This marks the first significant attempt to reduce the state's property taxes, the highest nationwide. Governor Phil Murphy's opposition to the plan could potentially lead to a government shutdown on July 1st. WNYC’s Nancy Solomon has more.

NYC now. Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Thursday, June 15th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Prosecutors say a grand jury has voted to indict the 24-year-old former Marine who choked Jordan nearly to death on the subway last month. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office says Daniel Penny will be rearranged on June 28th. prosecutors first charged him with second-degree manslaughter last month. A DA's office spokesperson says the grand jury, quote, returned a true bill but could not confirm the charge or charges in the indictment. Penny's attorney said the evidence needed to bring an indictment is less than what's necessary

to convict someone of a crime. And a statement, Mayor Adams says, I have the utmost faith in the judicial process. And now that the grand jury has indicted Daniel Penny, of trial and justice can move forward. One of the Penny's attorneys says we're confident that when a jury trial takes place and is tasked with weighing the evidence, they will find Daniel Penny's actions on that train were fully justified.

In other news, an investigation is underway after a three-year-old in Trenton died yesterday after apparently accidentally shooting themselves. That's according to the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office. Police say they believe the child's death was an accident after they had found and fired the weapon. The victim's name has not been released to the public. Law enforcement officials say they recovered the firearm and that an investigation is underway.

According to the advocacy organization, every town for gun safety, guns are the fourth leading cause of death for children in New Jersey. 74 and mostly cloudy now, mostly sunny today, with the high of 80, a slim chance of showers overnight, and 66. Once again, 74. with clouds. Democratic leaders in the New Jersey State Legislature are fast-tracking a bill that would cut

property taxes in half for most seniors. It's the first proposal in years aimed at significantly reducing New Jersey property taxes, which are the highest in the nation. But Governor Phil Murphy opposes a plan, potentially setting up a budget fight that could shut down the state government on July 1st. WNIC's Nancy Solomon, Why? Don't worry about the dog will bark, but they're friendly. Hi. Meet David Crutcher of South Orange.

Hey, hey, be nice. That is, after you get past two not-so-fearse dogs, about shin high and more suitable for a lap. Very nice to meet you. Come on. Crutcher lives with his wife and a daughter in a modest 2,000 square foot home. It's in an upper-middle-class neighborhood of bigger, more affluent houses. It's a four-bedroom house, but the bedrooms are quite small. It has sort of like a townhousy kind of feel.

Meaning, compared to a lot of suburban houses, it's small. Crutcher is 76, retired from a career in marketing and sales. His daughter's just graduated college, and his wife still works. Now we're planning to move next spring. Uh-huh. So selling and pulling up sticks. After 17 years in South Orange, they'll move somewhere much cheaper. It's not the mortgage that makes it hard to afford this home in retirement.

it's the $18,000 a year in property taxes. That's $1,500 a month, just in property taxes. And I know a lot of neighbors have the same kind of concern, and so they almost do automatically think about it when their kids are no longer dealing themselves at the school system. The house next door is more typical for this neighborhood. The property taxes are more than $24,000. It is really a difficult decision, I think, for most people to move,

and most cited, I would say, among people who have moved off and have been the property taxes. This is the problem that Democratic leaders of the legislature are trying to solve. Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin is proposing to cut property taxes in half for anyone 65 years and older, no matter their income, and capped at $10,000. So if your property taxes are $20,000, you would get $10. If your property taxes were $10,000, you'd get $5. Kaufflin wants the money to come straight off the tax bill, not a rebate.

The state would replace that money to town and school budgets. It's expected to cost somewhere between $1.2 and $1.7 billion a year from the $53 billion state budget. The Assembly Speaker says it's worth it. I think the plan has a real opportunity to make a transformational difference for seniors in terms of their decision to stay here. In what might be the first big conflict with Coughlin since he became speaker in 2018, Governor Murphy says he won't sign the bill as is, even if it holds up a budget deal. That could mean a New Jersey government shutdown on July 1st. I don't think we should be in the business of giving the lights of being tax breaks, so we're serious.

Murphy has the support of the think tank New Jersey policy perspective, which opposes any taxation that is regressive, meaning the more a person makes, the more they benefit. Peter Chen, the group's policy analyst, says the senior tax cut benefits those with the most money. It's fair to design a system that continues to assist people at different income levels, but the bulk of the benefits should not be going in any program to people at the higher end of the income spectrum. The bill came before a state assembly committee on aging recently, and assembly member Saddam Jaffer, a Princeton Democrat, spoke against it. She isn't running for re-election after serving her first term, so she doesn't have to worry about tangling with the

leadership. She says she objects to the bill because it has no eligibility restrictions on who can receive the tax break. That means that millionaires and billionaires would benefit from state funds at a rate of up to $10,000 every year. And lower income seniors living in less valuable properties would receive proportionately less. And seniors who rent their homes would receive nothing. The committee sent the bill on to a full vote of the Assembly, but most of its members said they want to see fixes. If the legislature agrees to put income restrictions on the senior tax break, that could clear the way for a compromise that would avoid a government shutdown next month. Nancy Solomon, WNYC News. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC.

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