The city teachers union poured $4.7 million into political activities and lobbying last year — nearly $1 million more than in fiscal year 2013, according to its new annual spending report.
Much of the spending was used to support Mayor de Blasio’s agenda — including the successful campaign to expand pre-K and the losing effort to knock Republicans out of power in the state Senate.
The union also successfully fought back a plan to provide tax benefits to aid parochial schools.
The United Federation of Teachers now has a record 185,622 members, up 2,000 from 2013, according to the report.
Some 30 union staffers are pulling in more than $150,000 — exceeding the maximum pay for teachers and nearly double the average. Over 100 union officials cleared $100,000 in pay. UFT boss Mike Mulgrew received more than $280,000 in compensation, including a base salary of $250,000.
And the union generously bankrolls groups that support its agenda, including fighting the expansion of charter schools. The rebranded ACORN — the anti-charter New York Communities for Change — received $236,440 from the UFT. The Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network received a $25,000 donation, while Working Families Party founder and former ACORN honcho Bertha Lewis’ The Black Institute got a $30,000 “charitable” gift, and the anti-charter NAACP received $12,800.
The report detailed more than $1.89 million in ad spending to Democratic consulting firm Shorr Johnson Magnus.
The UFT also pays generously for other top political and legal advice. The union paid $252,233 to campaign consultant Red Horse Strategies, while Stroock & Stroock & Lavan — the law firm defending the union in the lawsuit to overhaul tenure and advising it in labor negotiations — was paid $3.63 million.
With the $50 dues it collects from members’ paychecks, the UFT spent more than $1 million in food, conference, hotel and lodging bills; $123,558 on executive car-service trips; $197,414 on movie tickets; $94,000 on Yankees, Mets and Nets tickets and sponsorships; $266,294 on union merchandise (pens, key chains, tote bags, etc.); and $19,779 on “Great Escapes and Adventures.”
The union defended the spending.
“We are proud of every dollar we spend on our members,” UFT spokesman Dick Riley said.
As for a $7,000 Disney World trip, the union said some of its members attended a conference for paraprofessionals and nurses sponsored by the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a black-labor advocacy group.
One political analyst said the UFT is fighting to protect its turf in a traditional, union-dominated public-school system against a well-financed and growing school-choice movement.
“It’s an education arms race,” said Basil Smikle, a former state Senate candidate. “Education has become the dominant policy issue in New York City . . . Everyone is sort of playing defense now. The union is using all the resources it can muster to counter the school-choice movement. And school-choice advocates are marshalling significant resources to protect their charter schools.”
One pro-charter group, Families for Excellent Schools, spent $5.95 million on Albany lobbying last year. And the campaign arm of StudentsFirstNY, another school-choice group, spent $4.4 million to help Republicans secure control of the Senate.