The Joint Commission on Public Ethics (“Commission”) today released its 2021 Annual Report, featuring highlights of its work fulfilling its mission of regulating compliance with ethics and lobbying laws in New York state. 

In early 2021, the Commission’s revised comprehensive lobbying regulations took effect, which included providing increased clarity on some key definitions, including Contractual Client and Designated Lobbyist and simplified provisions related to Direct and Grassroots Lobbying.   

Total lobbying expenditures for 2021 were $292.9 million, a more than 9 percent increase from the $262.1 million spent in 2020, and not far below the record spending of more than $298 million set in 2019.  The trend of lobbying spending continued to shift more heavily toward compensation than expenses in 2021. Compensation paid to retained and in-house (employee) lobbyists climbed to $270.4 million, a $21.7 million jump from the $248.7 million reported in 2020.

The 2021 list of the top 10 highest-spending lobbying entities was capped once again by top spender the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), which spent $5,448,219 on compensation and expenses, with lobbying efforts ranging from Covid-19 and other healthcare-related issues impacting hospitals and nursing homes to pharmaceutical-, insurance-, and labor/union-related issues.

Labor was the biggest focus of the top lobbying entities this past year, including AARP (ranked #3), NYS Nurses Association (ranked #6), NYS Trial Lawyers Association (ranked #7), NYS United Teachers (ranked #8), and online food ordering and delivery platform Doordash, which entered the list for the first time at number 9.

Other newcomers to the list were South Street Seaport Limited Partnership (#5) and RXR Development Services LLC (#10), both of which were focused on construction and  real estate development. The only entity whose interests varied from  other members of the top 10 was Genting NY (#4), whose lobbying interests focused on gaming and, listed  one of the most-lobbied bills of 2021 in their lobbying reports, Senate Bill S2509, which provided for regulation of sports wagering and mobile sports wagering.

The 10 highest-spending lobbying entities in 2021 accounted for 6.8% of all lobbying spending at $19.7 million. The top ten lobbyists in 2021 were led once again by Brown & Weinraub, PLLC, followed by Kasirer LLC and Bolton St. Johns, LLC (consistent with the 2020 rankings). Rounding out the top ten in 2021 were Greenberg Traurig, LLP; Mercury Public Affairs LLC (up from #6 in 2020); Ostroff Associates, Inc.; Park Strategies, LLC; Hinman Straub Advisors, LLC; Constantinople & Vallone Consulting LLC; and James F. Capalino & Associates (back in the top ten after being at #11 in 2020).

The number of registrations increased slightly from 5,740 in 2020 to 5,747 in 2021.  Registrations, however, have yet to regain the levels achieved in 2019, when 6,650 registrations were submitted for that year. In addition, the number of clients dropped to 4,486 in 2021, a decrease of 3.9% from 2020. This might suggest that although fewer clients lobbied in 2021 than in 2020, they paid more to lobby than they did in the previous year. In addition, the number of public corporations that registered and filed as lobbyists or filed reports as clients of lobbyists increased slightly, from 58 in 2020 to 59 in 2021,  significantly less than the 76 that lobbied in 2019. 

The complete source data filed by lobbyists and their clients for 2021 was also published on the Commission’s website, jcope.ny.gov, today, and can be found here.  Tables summarizing some of the 2021 lobbying data highlights appear at the end of this release. Additionally, Public Search Query results can be downloaded as spreadsheets for further analysis.

To access the ‘Public Data’ page, select the ‘About’ main menu from the JCOPE website and then select ‘Public Data’ from the drop-down menu.  From the Public Data page, access the Public Search Query from the ‘Lobbying Data on Demand’ section of the page.  Scroll down to the ‘Alphabetical and other Reports’ section of the Public Data page to access the Lobbying Reports. 

More detailed information on investigative matters, guidance and outreach, and audit and review of financial disclosure statements and required lobbying filings can be found in the 2021 annual report itself. 

On July 8, the Ethics Commission Reform Act of 2022 goes into effect, and the Joint Commission on Public Ethics will be replaced by the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government. Additional information about the work of JCOPE during its 11-year history and some year-to-date information of its work for the first half of 2022 can be found in the annual report.