Mayor de Blasio and his administration engaged in heavy horse-trading all week in a frenzied bid to lasso enough votes for the now-aborted horse-carriage bill, sources told The Post.
Multiple City Council members were offered resources or capital projects in their districts in exchange for their support of the measure — which would have shrunk the carriage industry and limited it to Central Park, the sources said.
“There were plenty of carrots and plenty of sticks being bandied about over the past 72 hours,” a City Hall source said.
A City Hall spokesman flatly denied that any such offers had been made.
Sources said council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito also made it clear to members that she expected their support on an initiative she had championed for years.
One council source said she gave Brooklyn Councilman Carlos Menchaca a hard time for his public support of the pedicab drivers — who were treated as collateral damage under the carriage deal with the Teamsters union.
“She made it known to members that she wanted this bad and said, ‘This is what I need you to do. Plain and simple,’ ” the source said. “The mayor wasn’t the only one with a lot of skin in the game. She . . . had a lot riding on it.”
It appears their efforts would have been successful if the Teamsters hadn’t bowed to pressure from fellow labor unions and backed out at the 11th hour.
After announcing they were pulling the vote, Council officials insisted they had enough support to push it through.
Sources said former Edison Properties honcho Stephen Nislick and Hugo Neu Recycling director Wendy Neu — leaders of the animal-rights group NYCLASS — also put pressure on council members.
The two of them and close associates pumped at least $900,000 into de Blasio’s 2013 mayoral campaign and the progressive nonprofit he now operates as mayor.