NYC NOW - Midday News: Business Leaders Warn of Tariff Fallout, NYPD Launches Subway Surfing Prevention Essay Contest, and City Council Counters Mayor’s Budget Plan

Episode Date: April 8, 2025

With Trump’s new tariffs in effect, Manhattan business leaders warn the city’s economy could take a hit beyond Wall Street. Meanwhile, the NYPD is asking high schoolers to pitch solutions to the dangerous subway surfing trend in a new citywide essay contest. Plus, the City Council is challenging Mayor Adams’ proposed 2026 budget with a $117 billion counterproposal. WNYC’s Sean Carlson speaks with Budget Chair Justin Brannan.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Tuesday, April 8th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. With President Trump's tariffs now in effect, business leaders in New York are sounding the alarm. Jessica Walker with the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce says the city's economy is especially vulnerable because it's not just about Wall Street. I mean, New York is.

so unique. We do have Wall Street here, so obviously, you know, everybody is watching the market very closely. But we also have a Main Street. So we have, you know, more than a hundred thousand small and medium-sized businesses here as well. President Trump last week announced sweeping tariffs on nearly all the U.S. trading partners like China. Walker says confusion and uncertainty around the rollout are only making things worse. The NYPDs inviting New York City high schoolers to take a crack at solving one of the citizens. deadliest youth trends, subway surfing. W&MIC's Julia Hayward has more. As part of a new essay contest, students are being asked to imagine themselves as police commissioner

and lay out a plan to work with MTA officials to prevent teens from riding outside subway cars. The stunt killed six people last year, most of them minors. The contest comes amid ongoing efforts by the city, MTA, and social media companies to slow the trend, including awareness campaigns, drone surveillance, and video takedowns online. The competition is open to all NYC students in grades 9 through 12, with entries due by April 25th. The top winner will receive $500 and spend a day with NYPD leadership. 42 and mostly sunny now, mostly sunny today, a high of 46, it'll be gusty, winds up to 43 miles an hour, cold a night down to 30, feeling is cold as 20, and a freeze warning begins at midnight.

Stick around. There's more to come. It's all things considered on double D when I see. I'm Sean Carlson. New York City Council says the city has more money to spend next year than the amount Mayor Adams laid out in his 2026 executive budget proposal. Council leadership is offering up a $117 billion proposal of their own for the city's next fiscal year, which starts in July. Justin Brannon is the chair of the city council's budget committee, one of those council leaders. He also represents southwest Brooklyn, including Bay Ridge and Coney Island.

He joins us now to talk about the council's budget proposal. Council member, welcome back to the show. And Sean, always good to talk to you. So your proposal is about $2 billion more than what the mayor proposed in January. Can you just walk us through some of the big differences between those proposals and what's the extra money in yours going towards? Sure, I think it's important just to set the table that a Popular misconception is that we start at zero every year and spend until we run out of ideas. You'll often see headlines that say the city council is looking to add or the city budget

has ballooned to X amount, but we're not printing money, right? By law, by city charter, we have to allocate the finite amount of revenue that we take in. So a growing budget means a healthy economy. And I think New York City's economy continues to show strength and resilience. job growth is up. Revenues are stronger than expected. The recovery is real, but we'd be foolish to ignore the warning signs, especially coming from Washington. And City Hall continues to lean on outdated austerity measures, cutting vital services and pretending it's the only option, and it's not. So the City Council put forward a plan that relies on $3 billion in additional tax revenue,

thanks to stronger than expected personal income and business tax collections. And we want to restore the critical services that New Yorkers rely on. Now, does the city really have $2 billion in extra money laying around to spend? We do. I mean, you know, the administration is notoriously doom and gloom, and they love to hide money until the last possible moment. but what the council is doing is laying out a different path, a smart, honest, balanced, forward-looking plan that invest in what works and, you know, also includes $2.2 billion

in potential underspending in the current budget, money that was allocated but hasn't been used. So, you know, I think it's important to note that the resources are there. The challenge is making sure that they're used to actually meet the real needs of New Yorkers. Now, we hear a lot of Democrats saying that they fear Mayor Adams would be beholden to President Trump in light of the move to drop the mayor's federal corruption case. The mayor has always insisted he put New Yorkers first based on what you're seeing during these negotiations. Do you think that's the case? Well, I'm hoping things change because if the mayor is no longer under Trump's thumb, then we would hope that the mayor would now join the city council in fighting back against this administration. in Washington. I mean, there is no American city that can absorb sweeping painful federal cuts without

consequences. So we're doing everything we can to triage the damage and protect essential services and be vigilant and be prepared. But if it continues at this rate, it'll be impossible to plug every hole without completely draining our emergency reserves. And it would be nice if we had a mayor who was actually standing up for New Yorkers and standing up to Donald Trump and what he's trying to to do to our city. You hear Governor Hokel and legislative leaders in Albany openly discussing the possibility that the legislature might need to negotiate an entirely new state budget, depending on the size of potential cuts from President Trump and the federal government. Do you and Speaker Adams have the same concerns about the city's budget? I mean, look, you know, we're obviously concerned with the

news about the tariffs because when the market tanks, it hurts our budget. It means less money for public schools and parks and libraries and less money to pay cops and firefighters. This is everything that New Yorkers rely on. And when the market tanks, it hits our pension funds. So it's a very uncertain time. But as the co-equal branch of government, you know, we need a dance partner on the other side of City Hall. And until now, we're hoping, again, because of the news of the mayor's case, we hope that he can now join us in fighting back against these cuts. The mayor said that he is sidestepping the Democratic primary and that he's going to run for re-election as an independent. You were a former ally of the mayors.

You endorsed him in his first campaign back in 2021. How are you feeling right now? Are you concerned that the mayor has the potential to play a spoiler role for the Democratic candidate come November? I mean, I don't think so. I mean, obviously that's the mayor's decision to make if he wants to run as an independent. I think voters are informed and smart. And the Democrat that wins the primary in June will then win the general election in November. But that's his decision to make.

Look, I'm a Democrat. I would never run as anything else, but that's his decision to make. Given everything that is going on with him and the fact that Speaker Adams is also running in the Democratic primary for mayor, do you think that the council and the mayor are going to be able to negotiate a budget in good faith? I do. I mean, what's puzzling to me, Sean, is that the priorities that the council fights for every year, these aren't pet projects, right? These are universally popular priorities, like our parks, our libraries, early childhood education,

CUNY. These shouldn't be bones of contention between the council and the mayor. But for whatever reason, they have been. And I don't see how the mayor, frankly, would benefit from a protracted, bloody, budget battle over the next couple of months, right? I think if we can all agree on how much money is there, which is always the problem, because we're honest and they often are not, then we can get moving on funding these priorities and passing a balanced and sound budget.

But I don't see politically how the mayor would benefit from a long fight with the council over priorities that most New Yorkers support. Now, you talked about at the top here about the idea of how framing the budget as ballooning is maybe a bit of an unfair characterization. But still, the executive budget proposal that the mayor put forward does set a record for a New York City budget. And the council, again, is asking for an additional $2 billion. In an era of uncertain finances with President Trump and Elon Musk taking a chainsaw to federal funding and affordability, becoming a real weak spot for Democrats in the past few election cycles,

do you think there is some room for reexamination and potential pruning of some initiatives in the city budget? I mean, look, there's always places to find efficiency in a budget north of $115 billion. You know, the council fought very hard a couple of budgets ago to pass the first property tax rebate in almost 20 years. So there are ways to find efficiencies to reinvest and reprioritize. I think it's a matter of how you do it. I think what Doge is doing, not only the problem with Doge is that it's being run by an unelected oligarch with just unchecked power, but they're using a sledgehammer instead

of a surgeon's blade. I'm all for, you know, you know, squirreling away money for a row. rainy day, especially in this moment. We're going to fight to put more money in on reserves. But we also have to be careful politically and strategically because, you know, if the Trump, you know, we've never had a president that had his nose so far into New York City politics, if the president sees that the city has, you know, a very strong reserve fund, then it's very possible that they will enact, you know, even further cuts because they think we can handle it. So I think right now what we need to do is make targeted investments, double down on what works,

make sure we're saving for a rainy day, but we have to be vigilant and we have to fight back. And until now, the mayor just has not been doing that. The next fiscal year starts July 1st. So I am sure that we will talk before then. That's council member, Justin Brandon, council member. Thanks so much, as always. Right on, man.

Always a pleasure. And we should note that the council member is also running for city controller. Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now from WMYC. Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a day, for the latest news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.