NYC NOW - June 30, 2023: Morning Headlines

Episode Date: June 30, 2023

Get up and get informed! Here’s all the local news you need to start your day! Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council have finalized a $107 billion budget, WNYC's Elizabeth Kim reports that neither side came away looking happy. A bill proposed in the City Council could shift brokers fees from tenants to landlords. Lastly, mysterious swarms of tiny flying insects buzzed several NYC neighborhoods last night, prompting a social media frenzy.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, June 30th. Here's the morning headlines from Michael Hill. You're waking up this morning to some unhealthy air in the city. 70 and partly cloudy as well. We have widespread haze in the forecast once again, mostly sunny in a high of 84. Mayor Eric Adams and the New York City Council have agreed on a $107 billion budget.

WNYC's Elizabeth Kim reports that neither side came away looking happy. Unlike last year, there was no hug between the mayor and council speaker Adrian Adams. The mayor put it this way. Unlike the Yankees, it was not a perfect game. The two lawmakers spent weeks fighting over cuts the mayor said the city needed to make in the face of a challenging fiscal outlook. The council succeeded in pushing for more funding, restoring cuts to libraries, CUNY, senior programs,

other services for poorer New Yorkers. But the two parties sharply disagreed over policies like affordable housing and public safety. It may only be a preview of what's to come. With slowing revenues and federal pandemic aid drying up, next year's budget is expected to be even more contentious. Prospective renters usually spend thousands of dollars in broker fees, but a new bill in the City Council would require landlords to foot the bill for the brokers they hire. Councilmember Chi Oseh introduced the measure. He says his approach is different from previous bills that unsuccessfully tried to curb the fees. What this bill is doing that's different than some of the other attempts is that we are not completely eliminating the broker fee. We're not eliminating the broker

fee at all. We're just putting the responsibility on whomever hires the broker. Many tenants say the fees often a month of rent or percentage of the annual rent, are unaffordable, but members of the realtor and landlord group, the Real Estate Board of New York say the bill will actually hurt tenants because owners will simply pass the cost to renters anyway. If you were outside in New York City last night, you may have noticed a small thing or maybe a giant swarm of small things. Tiny insects fill the air neighborhoods in at least three of the city's five burrows. Social media reports and videos show a cloud of the tiny greenish white flying bugs from Brooklyn to Manhattan to Queens. It's still unclear of what caused the swarms.

You can count on it. We're trying to find out what that was all about. 70 and partly cloudy, cloudy now with some unhealthy air this morning. Widespread haze once again, mostly sunny and 84. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. this afternoon.