Preliminary Total Lobbying Spending for March-April Reaches $82.4...

The preliminary bi-monthly lobbying data for March-April 2026 shows lobbying spending totaled $82.4 million, up 23.4% from the same period in 2025 and up 6.1% from January-February 2026, NYS Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government Executive Director Sanford N. Berland announced today. A surge in spending on advertising and other expenses led to the significant year-over-year increase in reported lobbying spending. Detailed charts on March-April 2026 lobbying activity are now available. 

“The March-April filing period continues to reflect the heightened lobbying activity that surrounds the state budgetary process,” Executive Director Berland said. “Expenses spending by two client organizations – Citizens for Affordable Rates and Uber – accounted for much of the increase in lobbying-related activity over 2025. The greatly heightened spending in the first two bi-monthly reporting periods in 2026 indicate that overall lobbying spending this year will surge compared with last year’s, making the Commission’s work to bring increased transparency to lobbying activity more significant than ever.”  

“The sizeable increase in reported total expenses for March-April underscores the substantial resources being devoted to lobbying across New York State in 2026,” Chair Seymour W. James, Jr. said. “With budget bills once again claiming most of the top 10 most lobbied bills, it is crucial that the public have access to information about lobbying activity in real time to get a clear picture of the efforts being made to influence major fiscal and policy decisions.” 

March-April 2026 Preliminary Lobbying Spending  

The preliminary lobbying spending reported by lobbyists for March-April 2026 totaled $82.4 million, up $4.8 million, or 6.1%, from January-February 2026 and $15.6 million, or 23.4%, from March-April 2025. Lobbyist compensation totaled $62.1 million, marking a 4.1% increase from the $58.7 million spent in January-February 2026 and a 2.1% increase over March-April 2025. Expenses in the March-April 2026 bi-monthly period jumped to $21.3 million, a 12.5% increase from the $19.0 million spent in January-February 2026 and more than three times the $7.0 million expended in March-April 2025. March-April expenses included $19.6 million in itemized expenses, up $13.7 million from the same period last year, as well as $1.6 million in non-lobbying expenses, and $207,802 in expenses less than $75.   

Citizens for Affordable Rates, LLC and Uber Technologies, Inc. and Affiliates led the March-April spending surge, with total expenses of $4,541,973 and $4,529,199, respectively.  

March-April 2026 Ten Most Highly Compensated Retained Lobbyists   

The three most highly compensated retained lobbyists saw a slight change from January-February 2026. Brown & Weinraub Advisors, LLC continued to hold the first spot at $4.4 million, followed by Kasirer LLC, up from the number three spot in January-February, at $3.1 million, while Bolton-St Johns, LLC came in at number three at $3.0 million. Greenberg Traurig, LLP remained in fourth at $2.7 million, followed by Ostroff Associates, Inc (#5), Hinman Straub Advisors, LLC (#6), The Parkside Group, LLC (#7), and Hollis Public Affairs Inc. (#8). Rounding out the top 10 were Mirram Group LLC (#9) at $1.2 million and Pitta Bishop & Del Giorno LLC at $1.2 million (#10). 

March-April 2026 Lobbyists Firms Ranked by Number of Clients  

The three lobbying firms with the greatest number of clients in March-April 2026 saw no change from January-February 2026. Brown & Weinraub Advisors, LLC, remained in the first spot, with 328 Contractual Clients and 367 Beneficial Clients, followed by Bolton-St. Johns, LLC, with 242 Contractual Clients and 245 Beneficial Clients, and Greenberg Traurig, LLP, with 210 Contractual Clients and 215 Beneficial Clients. Kasirer LLC remained in the fourth spot, followed by Ostroff Associates, Inc. (#5), Hinman Straub Advisors, LLC (#6), Constantinople & Vallone Consulting LLC (#7), and Pitta Bishop & Del Giorno LLC (#8). Rounding out the top 10 were The Parkside Group, LLC (#9) and Hollis Public Affairs Inc.  (#10).  

March-April 2026 Top Bills, Topics, and Parties Lobbied 

Budget bills continued to dominate the 10 most lobbied bills in March-April 2026.  Major components of the state transportation, economic development, and environmental conservation budget, with two related bills, claimed the top spot, followed by the four Aid to Localities Budget bills. Major components of legislation necessary to implement the state health and mental hygiene budget for the 2026-2027 state fiscal year claimed the third spot with two related bills. The most lobbied non-budget bills were A1749 and S1464, which would have enacted the “packaging reduction and recycling infrastructure act”; S1913 and A6222, which related to establishing the "340B prescription drug anti-discrimination act"; and S6570 and A8758, which would have enacted the accelerate solar for affordable power act.  

The top subjects/topics lobbied saw no changes from January-February 2026, with health remaining in the top spot, followed by miscellaneous business, and budget appropriations. The top three parties lobbied were the Executive Chamber/Office of the Governor, with 805 filings, followed by the NYS Senate Majority Program and Counsel Staff, with 628 filings, and the NYS Assembly Majority Program and Counsel Staff, with 608 filings. 

COELIG Ongoing Efforts to Increase Accessibility to Lobbying Data 

A main priority for the Commission since its inception has been to increase public awareness of and access to the substantial volume of data the Commission receives: 

• More Frequent and Timely Lobbying Reports: In 2025, the Commission began releasing preliminary aggregated lobbying data every two months to increase transparency in lobbying spending.  
   
• Open NY: In 2023, COELIG added its hundreds of millions of lobbying records to the Open NY data website, including Lobbyist Bi-Monthly Reports, becoming the largest single dataset hosted on the platform. To date, more than 358 million lobbying records from 2019 through the present are available for download by journalists, researchers, and the public. 
   
• Lobbying Registration and Termination Docket: To increase public access to lobbying data, in 2023 COELIG launched an enhanced Lobbying Registration and Termination Docket that provides increased transparency for basic information about the contractual agreements between clients and lobbyists, including level of government to be lobbied, whether it is anticipated that the $5,000 registration threshold will be exceeded, and compensation and expense information. 

About COELIG     

Established by the 2022 Ethics Commission Reform Act and made effective in July 2022, the Commission’s charge is to foster public trust in government by ensuring compliance with the state’s ethics and lobbying laws and regulations. It has jurisdiction over more than 330,000 officers and employees at state agencies and departments, including commissions, boards, state public benefit corporations, public authorities, SUNY, CUNY, and the statutory closely affiliated corporations; the four statewide elected officials and candidates for those offices; employees and members of the state Legislature and legislative candidates; and state and local lobbyists and their clients.       

The Commission administers, enforces, and interprets New York’s ethics and lobbying laws by providing information, education, and guidance regarding ethics and lobbying laws; promoting compliance through audits, investigations, and enforcement proceedings; issuing formal and informal advisory opinions; and promulgating regulations implementing the laws under its jurisdiction.      

The Commission promotes transparency by conducting its proceedings publicly to the fullest extent permitted by law and by making the financial and other disclosures filed by those subject to the Commission’s authority publicly available. These disclosures include, but are not limited to, annual financial disclosure statements filed by over 30,000 individuals, and millions of records contained in registration statements and activity and expense reports filed by lobbyists and their clients.