NYC NOW - Midday News: Gov. Hochul Backs Mask Penalty Law, Weekend Storms Expected, and Mayor Adams Unveils City Budget Amid Re-Election Fight

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

Governor Kathy Hochul is backing a new law that would increase penalties for wearing a mask while committing a crime. Forecasters are warning of rain and thunderstorms in the New York City area this weekend. And Mayor Eric Adams has unveiled a $115 billion city budget plan that could define the final stretch of his mayoralty as he faces a tough re-election battle. WNYC’s Elizabeth Kim has more.

Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, May 2nd. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. New York Governor Kathy Hochel is touting a pending law that will mean tougher penalties for people who wear masks while committing a crime. WNYC's Jimmy Veilkine explains. Standing in the New York City subway, the Democratic governor says police will be able to hit criminals who wear masks. with an extra charge. Some Jewish groups concerned about anti-Semitic attacks were among those

that pushed for the change. Hockel says the pending law will increase public safety and hold criminals accountable. That's important because we've seen in this subway. People masking themselves trying to evade the cameras that we put in place. Long Island's Nassau County already has its own masking restrictions. Opponents say broader bans crack down on free expression. Hockel says the pending law will be adopted as part of the state's $254 billion budget. It's already a month late. Get ready for some wet and storming weather this weekend into next week. The National Weather Service says there's a 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms today

after 2 o'clock this afternoon in this metro area. Then the highest chance of rain tomorrow, especially in the late afternoon and at night. Meteorologist Jay Engel says storms will continue into Sunday and Monday and Tuesday. It may not be raining the entire time, but it will be raining most of the time. Engel says the overall risk of flooding in the region is low at this time.

Temperatures will fluctuate from the 70s and 80s today and tomorrow, and then during the day to the 60s and 70s starting tomorrow evening. 72 with some sunshine right now in the big city. This is WNIC. Stay close. There's more after the break. It's all things considered on WNMIC.C. I'm Sean Carlson. It is no exaggeration to say that our fiscal year, 2026, executive budget is the best budget ever.

Well, that was Mayor Adams announcing his $115 billion budget for the city's next fiscal year. It could also be the last budget for Adams tenure in City Hall. The mayor is facing a difficult re-election this year. Here to break down the plan is WDNYC's Elizabeth Kim. She covers City Hall and the mayor. Liz, this is the mayor's executive budget. It's a revision of the spending plan he proposed in January. What has changed in this budget and why is the mayor talking up as the best budget ever?

Right. So it's very important to put this budget into context, which you've already mentioned. This is a re-election budget. This is the mayor fighting to win a second term, not as a Democrat, but as an independent this time. And he has spent the week promoting this as the best budget ever. because he's essentially trying to campaign on this. The January plan was considered rosy, and this is even rosier. It's roughly half a billion dollars more in spending.

The mayor is putting more money in pre-K and after school, and he's guaranteeing future funding in libraries, cultural institutions, and CUNY. Many of these were areas that the mayor had previously cut. One of the highlights of this budget is the expansion. of after school. Adam says that the city will expand after school to 20,000 elementary school students over the next three years. As we've talked about here, Sean, affordable child care has been a major challenge for New Yorkers, and it's become an election issue. I also want to note that this was not your ordinary budget announcement setting. The mayor typically gives these

in City Hall. Instead, he held it at Bayside High School. That's his alma mater. And he was surrounded by students holding up signs that read, best budget for a safer city, best budget for families. Wow. Liz, I got to say, this feels like a lot of pomp and circumstance for a budget. How is this budget being received? Well, there is skepticism and concern. You know, even back in January, there were questions about whether the city should be stocking away more money into its reserves because of these potential federal funding cuts that were going to come down from Trump. Now, those looming cuts are still there. And in some cases, they've materialized.

For example, the city recently lost nearly $200 million in a grant that was already awarded to them for migrant funding. But now we also have a new factor. And that's the tariffs. The tariffs have been causing global economic uncertainty and the threat of a recession. And that's why someone like Brad Lander, who's the city's controller, criticized the mayor for this budget. He called it, quote, fantasy land. And he said the mayor was essentially failing to protect New Yorkers.

Now, we should keep in mind that Lander is also running for mayor. And in the past, he's actually been critical of the mayor's cuts. But still, this is a concern that has been expressed by other budget watchers. And especially because Wall Street has been so. volatile lately. And we all know that Wall Street is a critical part of the city's economy. Yeah, totally. Well, given all that, Liz, how is the mayor defending the decision to boost spending then? Well, he pointed out that the city's reserves are at $8.5 billion. That's the highest of the reserves have ever been. And, you know, he argues that just because there's the threat of a recession

doesn't mean that the city shouldn't invest. Here's some of what he said. If we sit back and just have a doomsday scenario that, hey, recession is coming, recession is coming. So we're not going to deal with these issues that people are facing right now, then that would be irresponsible of us. So the irony of this, I would say, is that in his first year, there were also concerns about a recession. And the mayor was very, very sensitive to them. And he called for belt tightening all the time. And this was before the migrant crisis, which, you know, as we all know, led to further cuts. But, you know, in the mayor's defense, The city has had strong revenues and job growth.

The question is, how worried should city officials be about these economic headwinds? We should know, too. This isn't the final budget. That's something that Adams needs to negotiate with the city council, which happens to be led by another mayoral challenger, speaker Adrian Adams. How is she responding to the budget? And what kind of negotiations can we expect this year, given that there's two people here that are vying for the same job? So what's interesting is unlike the controller, the speaker said that this budget is a better start. than previous years. Now, when it comes to budgets and the mayor and the council, it's a situation

where both sides want to come away with wins. You know, you can expect the council will actually add several hundred million dollars to this budget. And it's going to be interesting to see whether there is more pressure on both sides to limit that additional spending if there are signs that the economy is going sour. Now, the impact of the tariffs have not really been felt yet, but experts are saying that Americans should begin to feel them in the price of goods soon. So, you know, we'll see. In the meantime, we're going to have more hearings on the budget, which could expose more spending gaps. Just as an example, Parks advocates are saying that they've never seen their cuts fully restored. You know, this will go on until we have

a final budget by June 30th. Well, Liz, much like the mayor's presentation, I got to say, this was the best budget discussion ever. My thanks to WNYC's Elizabeth Kim. We'll see you next time. Thanks, Sean. 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.

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