NYC NOW - Midday News: Mamdani Clinches Democratic Mayoral Nomination, NTSB Releases Brooklyn Bridge Crash Report, and NJ Budget Approved

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani has clinched the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor, with preliminary ranked choice results showing him winning 56 percent of the vote over former Governor Andrew Cuomo. The Associated Press has now called the race in Mamdani’s favor. Meanwhile, federal investigators say they are still trying to determine what caused a historic Mexican sailboat to crash into the Brooklyn Bridge in May, killing two crew members. Plus, lawmakers in New Jersey have approved a nearly $60-Billion dollar budget for the Garden State. Statehouse reporter for The Star-Ledger and NJ.com Susan Livio breaks it down.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Tuesday, July 1st. Here's the midday news from Sean Carlson. Zohran Mamdani has sewn up the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor. The City Board of Elections has released the preliminary results of its ranked choice tabulation showing Mamdani getting 56% of the vote. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo came in at 44%. The Associated Press is now calling their... race in Mamdani's favor. The State Assembly member from Queens will occupy the Democratic line in the

November election where he'll face current Mayor Eric Adams, who's running on an independent line. Cuomo qualified for an independent line, but he hasn't announced whether he'll actively campaign. Republican Curtis Lewa and independent Jim Walden will also appear on the ballot. The National Transportation Safety Board says it's still investigating what caused a historic Mexican sailboat to crash into the Brooklyn Bridge in May, killing two crew members. In a new report, the agency says the ship's systems seemed to be working properly and conditions in the river were calm. But in the moments before the crash, the boat, known as Q-Out-Temak, began to drift backwards, picking up speed. One of the pilots directed a nearby tugboat to maneuver to the back of the ship, but it was too late.

The NTSB says the ship's pilots and the tugboat captain tested negative for drugs and alcohol. Starting today, all fairs on New Jersey transit trains, light rail, and buses are going up by 3%. it comes after a year after the agency increased its prices by 15%. NJ Transit hadn't hiked its fares for nine years before last year. Now officials say they plan to increase them slightly every July, so the increases are more predictable. NJ Transit says the latest bump to the fare will help keep pace with the annual costs of increases like inflation.

Stay close. There's more after the break. NYC. Non-Dobily NICA, Michael Hill. Lawmakers in New Jersey have approved a nearly $60 billion budget for the Garden State. Governor Phil Murphy signed the new budget just before midnight last line for the new fiscal year, which begins today. With us now to break it all done is Susan Livio.

She's a statehouse reporter for the Star Ledger in NJ.com. Susan, this new budget comes with a big change to health benefits for state workers. Tell us about that, please. Good morning. This was a really big shock that came out of last-minute negotiations a week ago between the Senate president and the Assembly Speaker, they decided because health insurance premiums have skyrocketed, double-digit increases for the last three years and now beginning next year, it'll be the fourth year, that they picked an arbitrary number, $100 million out of a $2.9 billion health

insurance program for public state workers, that they would have to find savings by the end of the year. the unions have been furious saying you're bypassing bargaining rights. You know, people can't afford more. It's going to come back on us. We're going to have to pay the difference. So that's created quite a stir in the last week before the budget was signed. Would you tell us what changes are coming to property or home sales tax? Certainly.

So they approved along with the budget. They also passed an increase on what sellers pay when a home that's worth more than $2 million in New Jersey goes for. And interestingly enough, you know, New Jersey is one of the highest income states in America. One of the legislators who opposed this yesterday pointed out that nearly 20 percent of homes in New Jersey are worth a million dollars. So, you know, when this begins, a lot of people are going to be feeling this. But it's seen as a wealth tax in some respects. And so the increase will be, will fall on homes that are sold for 2.2% for $2 million homes. And then the increase goes to 2.5% for homes worth $2.5% for homes worth

$2.5 million to $3 million. And then it triples to 3% for $3 million homes and then goes up to 3.5% for homes worth 3.5 million. The budget includes about $500 million in last-minute pet or pork projects. What falls under those labels? It's a really wide range. So there's a lot of money for school improvements, little leagues, parks, a waterfront park, and Hoboken. Basically, it's projects that are really important to people back home, but are, Every year, this happens, you know, some years it's been as high as a billion dollars.

This year it's about a half a billion. And the party in power, which is the Democrats, they get to choose where a lot of these programs are funded. And to the great consternation of Republicans and some good government people who would like to see that money go to bigger programs. How does this budget prepare New Jersey for the potential federal budget cuts to Medicaid and more? In some respects, it doesn't. Governor Murphy insisted that there be a, at least a $6.3 billion surplus. I think they came in at $6.7 billion. However, legislative leaders were saying yesterday that, you know, New Jersey stands to

lose as much as $5 billion, but at least $3.6 billion in Medicaid cuts under President Trump's big, beautiful bill. So the leaders were asked, well, can you use the surplus for that? And they said no. So we expect that in a few months when all of this is settled, they're going to have to reopen the budget for this coming fiscal year and look ahead to see how they're going to be able to afford these significant losses. Susan, there's always people talking about how New Jersey is so expensive as a place to live. Even lawmakers are talking about that from all corners. of all political parties. What does this budget do to make it cheaper to live in New Jersey if it does at all? There's a lot. There's at least $4.3 billion in property tax relief. And there's three programs that are existing right now. There's one called Anchor, which provides up to $1,500 for homeowners. There's senior freeze, which helps income eligible seniors blunt the impact of tax increases

every year. And then there's a new program called StayNJ, which begins in January, and there's $600 million in the budget to get that rolling. However, it's a $1.2 billion program full year, and the next governor, who will be elected in November, is going to have to figure out where that money comes from. Our guest has been Susan Libio. She's an investigative reporter in the Statehouse Bureau for the Star Ledger in NJ.com. Susan, we covered a lot of territory there. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good day. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a date for the latest news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.