Overview
    "Money talks," and New York City is certainly no exception. Fourteen lobby interests in the city spent more than $100,000 each in 1999, hiring well-connected firms and directly lobbying city government on a wide range of issues. Altogether, these "Big Apple Big Spenders" spent a grand total of $2,435,815. (See Chart One.)

FACTS AT A GLANCE
Top City Lobby Interests for Calendar 1999
Blumenfeld Development Group, Ltd.	$265,916
Forest City Ratner Companies	$236,744
American Insurance Association	$225,000
Total for these three	$727,660
Number of Lobby Interest Spending $100,000 or More	14
Total for these 14 (includes top three above)	$2,435,815
Number of Top 14 who Lobbied on Land Use/Real Estate Issues	10
Total for these 10	$1,580,090
Number of Lobby Interest Spending $50,000 or More	79
Total for these 79 (includes top 14 above)	$6,684,152
Number of Lobby Interests who Paid for Lobbying in 1999	492
Total spent by all 492 lobby interests	$12,709,432
Average spent by each lobby interest	$25,832

This report seeks to answer the question of just who is lobbying "City Hall" and to what ends. NYPIRG identifies who is paying the most for lobbying and what issues these Big Spenders are lobbying on. And for the first time ever, we have ranked each and every of the 492 developers, associations, unions, businesses, non-profits & special interests that pay for lobbying city government (at least those who file with the Office of the City Clerk.) With the release of this report, any New Yorker with access to the Internet will be able to see for themselves just who is lobbying in the city and how much they’re spending by visiting www.nypirg.org.

We’ve organized the report into four charts. The first lists the city’s top 79 clients employing lobbyists, — those who spent more than $50,000 lobbying city agencies and officials last year. Chart Two lists what issues the top 14 "Big Spenders" (those spending more than $100,000) spent their money on. Chart Three lists the lobby firms the Big Spenders employed. Chart Four is an extensive ranking of all 492 lobby clients for 1999 and how much they spent.

We think this information is of vital importance to civic and community groups across the city and the general public. New Yorkers now have one more tool to better understand the politics and forces which affect a wide variety of public policy decisions. While the Office of the City Clerk publishes a valuable list of all the city’s lobbyists and a comprehensive client list, our report aggregates and ranks the lobby costs each client paid to each lobbyist they retained and details what the highest spenders lobbied on.

Just Who is Lobbying And What Are They Lobbying On?
    Most people associate lobbying with pending legislation and budgetary decisions. Indeed, legislative issues like smoking, ATM surcharges, and building sprinklers made it on to our list of issues of concern to the city’s highest spending lobby interests. However, our review shows that it is real estate & land use concerns which dominate the agenda of these big spenders. Ten of the top 14 spent at least a portion, if not all, of their $1,580,090 of lobbying expenses on proposed development & construction projects, zoning matters and other land use issues.

City records make it difficult to determine what every dollar was spent on. But a careful review of lobbyist disclosure forms reveals a good deal. Topics and issues lobbied ranged from the Commercial Rent Tax, sound stages for Kaufman Astoria Studios, housing developments in Brighton Beach and the JFK Airport rail link. That may come as no surprise in a real estate town like New York, but certainly can’t give much comfort to civic and local community groups trying to evaluate and affect development proposals across the city. Among our key observations:

• Leading the list of "Big Spenders" is the Blumenfeld Development Group, with a $265,916 tab for 1999. The disclosure forms filed by the three firms hired as their lobbyists describe a variety of development projects. These include the megastore/retail project on 116 to 119 Street in East Harlem and the development of the Bulova Watch site in Queens. (See Chart Two for a detailed breakdown.)

• There are a number of names on our list familiar to most New Yorkers, ranging from Home Depot, which weighed in with $135,128 to Bell Atlantic with $85,000 to Philip Morris with $76,272 to District Council 37 with $61,524 to Time Warner Cable with $55,838.

• There are also a wide number of special interests who spend big bucks and are unknown to many. The Metropolitan Taxi Cab Board of Trade (lobbying on proposed regulations regarding accessibility for the disabled) spent $84,000, and the Community Preservation Corporation (proponents of weakening the city’s lead paint regulations) spent $75,700. Browning Ferris Industries, (winners of a city contract on recycling last year) spent $50,000. NYPIRG spent $5,634 last year, lobbying on a wide range of issues including lead paint regulations, legislation to increase voter registration opportunities, charter revision, pesticides, ATM surcharges, campaign finance reform and the JFK rail link (see below.)

• One issue which attracted a significant amount of lobbying activity was the JFK rail link being constructed over the Van Wyck Expressway. The Air Transport Association of America (opponents of the Port Authority’s JFK rail link) spent a whopping $166,050 opposing the project. At least three more heavyweights spent part of their lobbying dollars on the issue. Weighing in were The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (95,000), Raytheon (79,200) and the General Contractor Association of New York (62,500.) However, because each had more than one project listed for their expenses, it’s not possible to know exactly how much was spent on the rail link.

• Among those spending $2,000 or less were the Whitney Museum ($1,900), the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ($1,526), Memorial Slaon-Kettering Cancer Center (858) and the Pepsi Cola Bottling Company ($784.)

NYPIRG is a not-for-profit research and advocacy organization. NYPIRG’s professional staff works to shape public policy and develop citizen participation in areas of government and corporate accountability, environmental and consumer protection, and economic and social justice.

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