Manhattan’s top lawmakers have been reprimanding Governor Andrew Cuomo for a proposal in his annual budget that, if passed, could stifle civic engagement in New York.
The proposal, outlined in one of the fifteen documents that comprise the budget, would lower the annual spending threshold for lobbying from $5,000 to $500. This means that any group that spends more than $500 per year would have to register as a lobbyist and submit regular spending reports.
Critics of the proposal say that this would classify a large portion of politically active students, retirees and parents as “lobbyists”, even though they don’t work on behalf of any special interest and aren’t paid for their campaign work.
“Our grassroots organizations are the key to our future,” said City Council Speaker Corey Johnson. “They need support, not extra hurdles. I applaud the True Blue Coalition and their grassroots partners for taking on this important issue.”
State Senator Brad Hoylman concurred, saying that grassroots volunteers shouldn’t be subjected to the same scrutiny that lobbyists are.
“I’m extremely concerned about the impact of lowering the lobbying threshold on grassroots activists,” said Hoylman. “These activists aren’t professional lobbyists and shouldn’t be forced to cut through red tape to make their important voices heard in New York.”
State Senator Robert Jackson was particularly harsh, calling the proposal a reprehensible, thinly veiled attack on grassroots organization.
“Governor Cuomo’s proposal to lower the reportable lobbying threshold to $500 is a shameful swipe at the very grassroots volunteer groups who helped me and other IDC-challengers get elected in 2018 and break the log-jam in Albany in 2019,” said Jackson. “This democracy-inhibiting measure should not be part of the Justice Agenda. I urge my colleagues in the New York State legislature to stand up for the volunteer-driven coalitions across our great state—who helped make the New York blue wave possible—and reject this lowering of the lobbying threshold.”
