JCOPE: Education tops lobbying spending for first half of 2015
Lobbying groups dedicated to education issues once again topped the list of spending in the first half of 2015, according to the midyear report released Thursday by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics.
In total, almost $131 million was spent on efforts to influence government decision-making in New York from January through June — a period that overlaps almost exactly with the legislative session.
(Michael P. Farrell, Times Union file)
The failed education investment incentives act tax credit, the cap on charter schools, and the 421-a real estate tax program generated heavy spending by several deep-pocketed advocacy organizations, JCOPE noted.
The Latham-based pro-charter group called the Coalition for Opportunity in Education topped the list, with reported spending of more than $5 million in lobbying expenditures.
“We’re just leveling a playing field that’s been dominated by one side of the education argument for decades,” said Robert Bellafiore, a spokesman for the Coalition.
Another pro-charter group, Families for Excellent Schools, spent a total of $3.38 million, though $1.74 million of those funds were reported by its ostensibly separate 501(c)4 arm — an arrangement that, as described by the TU’s Chris Bragg in a recent story, enables it to conceal the identities of its donors. Split in two, the advocacy arm of Families for Excellent Schools took the No. 6 slot, with its sibling taking No. 7 on JCOPE’s top ten list.
New York State United Teachers spent a mere $3.1. million on its lobbying during the 2015 session.
Most of the remaining groups in the top 10 spenders were coalitions representing labor and real estate developers, lobbying on New York City’s 421-a affordable housing production program, which provides a partial tax exemption for developers of certain residential buildings.
The groups making up the top 10 spent more than $23.4 million on lobbying activities for the first six months of the year, JCOPE said.
Of the approximately $131 million in total lobbying spending for January through June of 2015, approximately $101 million was spent on compensation to retained and in-house lobbyists, and $30 million in advertising, events, and other expenses.
As of June 30, 2015, there were 5,602 individual lobbyists reported on lobbyist registrations in New York State, representing 3,448 clients.
The top 10 professional lobbying firms received more than $35.3 million in total compensation and reimbursed expenses, led by Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, LLP, which received $5.5 million. The largest amount paid by a single client to a lobbyist was $531,000, which was paid by the French outdoor advertising company JCDecaux North America to Greenberg Traurig, LLP.
Here’s the full report: