Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Friday, January 17th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill.

Michael Hill: The NYPD is under a federal criminal investigation for a pay-to-play scheme exchanging promotions for bribes. That's according to a letter filed in a lawsuit against Tim Pearson, a top aide to Mayor Adams. The letter was filed last night. It includes claims of testimony from numerous NYPD employees, federal investigators interviewed about trading sexual favors in cash for promotions. Messages to City Hall and prosecutors have not been immediately returned. An important transit alert for Rockaway A train riders. The line will be shut down to and from Queens Peninsula starting tonight at 1:30 and lasting until May. The MTA says the months-long closure will allow for critical upgrades to the viaducts and bridge that carry trains across Broad Channel. Rockaway Park shuttle trains also will not run over the channel during the work. The MTA says the changes are expected to disrupt travel for 9,000 daily commuters. It says the work is necessary to protect the line from future storms. Free shuttle buses will run along the Q97 and Q109 routes. New York City could get its biggest snowfall so far this season by early Monday. The National Weather Service is forecasting 2 to 4 inches across the region, with some places outside the city anticipating up to 6 inches. Meteorologist Dave Riddell says then it will get very cold.

Dave Riddell: Tuesday into Wednesday looks to be the coldest of those days where highs may not get out of the teens and the wind chills look to be in the single digits for part of that time frame as well.

Michael Hill: The Arctic blast will likely be just short-lived with temperatures creeping back up later in the week. 37 now, sunshine and 40 tomorrow, chance of rain, and then some snow this weekend.

Janae Pierre: Stay close. There's more after the break.

Michael Hill: Mayor Adams unveiled his 105th billion budget proposal yesterday, calling it a testament to his responsible fiscal management of the city. Some critics don't agree with that. Let's go through the details now with WNYC's Michelle Bocanegra. Hi, Michelle. So let's dive into this. For starters, this is just the Mayor's plan of how to spend city taxpayer money.

Michelle Bocanegra: Hi, Michael. Yes, but it's not set in stone at this point. Basically what he unveiled yesterday is the proposal that kicks off the whole city budgeting process. It's called the preliminary budget, which is introduced by the Mayor. It's essentially the mayor's vision board for city spending in the upcoming fiscal year and the mayor is really the driver of the city's budget conversation in this stage. He's saying now this is what I'd like to do this year, but the thing is he has to wrestle with the council on what areas the city should prioritize its spending on.

Michael Hill: The key word is wrestle. What is the mayor prioritizing in this preliminary budget?

Michelle Bocanegra: Well, he is prioritizing a few areas, one of them being homelessness and mental illness. We knew of that he was hoping to add 900 safe haven beds, which can be a more accessible form of shelter than traditional shelters. He's hoping to help the city expand its subway outreach. He's also hoping to fund some pilot programs that ultimately will try to help homeless people find housing. He had a lot of focus on public safety, as he usually does or has had in his tenure as mayor. He's thinking about this in a few ways. A couple of things that he's looking at is he's hoping to beef up staffing at the city's jails and he's also hoping to beef up lifeguard staffing, which he hopes that will enable the city to bring more swim classes to folks. Oh, go ahead, Michael.

Michael Hill: I'm sorry. I'm wondering, is there anything getting cut?

Michelle Bocanegra: Well, that is the big tagline from his administration. No cuts to programs, no layoffs of city workers. He says that the city was able to do this after adjusting its forecast for migrant-related spending. It's also important to remember that the mayor is in an election year and a tough one for him, it's looking like.

Michael Hill: Tell us what his critics have to say about this, Michelle.

Michelle Bocanegra: Broadly, his critics are skeptical of this budget. Some folks are saying that the mayor touting a no-cuts proposal still falls short of, in their view, rectifying years of cuts to programs. Justin Brannan, who's the council's finance chair, says that the preliminary budget still doesn't make significant investments in things like early childhood education, parks, CUNY. Even stepping outside of the regular bucket of the mayor's political critics are the budget folks. The Citizens Budget Commission says that this preliminary budget could be another case of under-budgeting by the administration, particularly as it faces some uncertainty in the near future.

Michael Hill: Of course, the city is affected by larger forces above it. President-Elect Trump is getting inaugurated next week. What might that mean for the city's financial forecast?

Michelle Bocanegra: Of course, Mayor Adams is down in Florida today or will be at some point to meet with President-Elect Trump to talk about New York. Essentially, to your point, essentially, economists and budget experts say that the city needs some wiggle room to deal with any potential cuts to federal programs. One example that was given to us by the Citizens Budget Commission is that if there were, for example, cuts to federal Medicaid spending, that could potentially impact the city's public hospitals and then what?

The city has to essentially figure out how to shoulder that burden to ensure that everything keeps operating the way that it has been. That is a scenario in which a little cash in the couch cushions could alleviate.

Michael Hill: Indeed, indeed. That's Michelle Bocanegra talking to us here about the mayor's proposed $115 billion spending plan. Michelle, thank you.

Michelle Bocanegra: Thank you. Michael.

Michael Hill: What were you doing at 19? Heading to college classes, going to work? How about serving on a school board? That's exactly what 19-year-old Christina Argenziano from Closter, New Jersey is up to these days. She's recently been sworn in as a member of the Closter Local Board of Education, making her one of the youngest people to ever serve in that role. She joins us now. Hi, Christina. Welcome to Morning Edition.

Christina Argenziano: Hi. Thanks for having me.

Michael Hill: You're most welcome. How exactly did you decide to run for office? Did you have any inspirations?

Christina Argenziano: Oh, yes, I think my dad was a huge inspiration. He's been serving on my high school school board for the last 10 years. Just growing up, I've just really seen my dad, my mom really giving back to the community and being super involved in my school and my town. Then when I decided to study politics, I thought what better opportunity than to get a young voice involved in politics than right now in the school board? Because I saw that there was a seat open and there's a lot of older voices in politics right now. I thought, I'm a young person, I'm studying politics. No harm in starting early.

Michael Hill: A 19-year-old school board member is not exactly commonplace just yet. What kind of reaction did you get from people in your community while you were running, when you were campaigning?

Christina Argenziano: A lot of people reached out to my mom and they were like, ''Oh, I didn't know you were running.'' My mom was like, ''It's not me. It's actually my daughter.'' A lot of people's first thought just was automatically that it was an adult. When she told them that it was me, a lot of people were like, ''Wow, I'm so proud of her. This is going to be great for the town.'' I got a lot of messages of support from my friends, my friends' parents, people from around the town, through my parents that text my parents. It was honestly a lot of support when I was expecting a lot of skepticism and criticism for being so young.

Obviously, it turned out that a lot of people did believe in me based on the results. It felt very supportive to see that.

Michael Hill: What was your margin of victory?

Christina Argenziano: I won by, I think, almost 500 votes.

Michael Hill: Wow, that's impressive. How'd you do that?

Christina Argenziano: Leading up to the election, I took one of my friends and I went around my whole town going door to door, putting in flyers and mail-in ballots into every single mailbox. Then I also had lawn signs made and I reached out to everyone I knew in town and asked if I could put signs on their lawn. I had signs put out everywhere around town so I could get my name out there. I did a lot of campaigning.

Michael Hill: What were you telling people your priorities were, what you were going to do once you got on the school board?

Christina Argenziano: On my campaign flyers, I talked about student wellness and fiscal responsibility and things like that. Also, I talked about the importance of a young voice in politics and the importance of representation, decision-making. I think because I'm a younger person on the board, I feel like I'd be bridging a gap between students and the board. I feel like I'd be more of a representation of students.

Michael Hill: You were 14, 15 during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tell us, how did that experience of attending school remotely affect your academic experience? How do you think that influences your perspective as a board member?

Christina Argenziano: During COVID, I think that really affected a lot of things going into lockdown. I feel like being in school and education really dropped off for a second there. When we came back, I feel like a lot of things went to normal. Just a lot of learning and academics went to a lot of online tools. I think as someone who's actively still learning in a post-COVID environment, I can offer a unique perspective on that because I'm someone who's experienced it and is still experiencing it.

Michael Hill: Even though you're serving on the board, you're also, as we said, an NYU student living in New York City. What do you think the experience of switching back and forth between these two worlds will be like?

Christina Argenziano: I'm not worried about it. I live 45 minutes away, so it's not a long commute. When it's something that you care about and you're passionate about, I'm not worried about committing my time to it. I'm excited to learn to manage my time and balance school and this. I think I'll be fine.

Michael Hill: Christina Argenziano is a politics student at New York University and a new member of the Closter Local Board of Education in New Jersey. Christina, thanks so much for being with us.

Christina Argenziano: Thanks for having me. It was good talking to you.

Janae Pierre: Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More soon.

Copyright © 2025 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.