City Councilwoman Margaret Chin funneled $10,000 in taxpayer cash to a registered lobbyist who promoted her green bill to place fees on plastic bags — but failed to report the expense, as required by law, records show.
Chin, a Manhattan Democrat, paid $5,000 in fiscal years 2015 and 2016 to the Citizens Committee for New York City to “provide for reusable bag giveaways and outreach events about the environmental impacts of single-use [bags],” council-budget records state.
The advocacy group, listed in state records as lobbying for Chin���s “plastic bag bill,” included fliers with the bags calling for recipients to “call or e-mail your council member” about the legislation.
The giveaways are considered lobbying under state law because they’re focused on the passage of a specific bill, experts said.
The annual cost of the freebies put the Citizens Committee’s spending past the $5,000 threshold that requires lobbyists to report to the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics.
David Grandeau, former director of JCOPE’s predecessor, the Lobby Commission, said Chin’s move warrants an investigation.
“The idea that city money is being used to assist a lobbying effort — I’d open that investigation in a heartbeat,” Grandeau said.
He noted there’s a fine line between “outreach” and lobbying, and said when money is used to push people to contact elected officials, it crosses that line.
Paul Leonard, Chin’s spokesman, responded by saying she was being attacked by those with an “anti-environmental” agenda.
“This is a ridiculous, politically motivated attack by those with an anti-environmental regulation agenda on legitimate Council funding to increase the use of reusable bags, and reduce the amount of single-use bags clogging our City’s waste stream,” he said.
The Citizens Committee did not return calls.
The penalty for making a false filing with the state is a fine of up to $25,000.