By: Serach Nissim
New York City’s economy suffered across the board from the effects of the pandemic. The city’s top lobbying firm, however, managed to generate an increase in revenue for 2021.
As reported by the NY Post, Kasirer LLC, the lobbying group led by Suri Kasirer, raked in $15,461,493 in income for 2021. That’s roughly $1.3 million more than the $14.146 million it generated for 2020 from compensation from its clients, as per a new lobbying industry report. What’s even more impressive is the firm’s revenue for 2021 was close to double what the second highest compensated lobbying firm made. Namely, the firm James Capalino & Associates received $7,989,263 in compensation for the year. Other lobbyists making the most compensation for the year included: Bolton-St. Johns which made $7,209,289, Constantinople & Vallone Consulting which made $6,083,005, and Pitta Bishop & Del Giorno which made $4,974,397.
Overall, spending in the lobbying industry declined during the two-year pandemic, at $104.2 million in 2021, down from $106.34 million in 2020, and down from $113.19 million in 2019. “The lobbying business was growing year after year. But even the lobbying industry couldn’t defy the impact of the coronavirus pandemic,” said Blair Horner of the Public Interest Research Group.
Kasirer told the Post that a lot of her focus in lobbying during the pandemic was to help clients including the NYC Hotel Association and the restaurant industry recover from the shutdowns and long-lasting economic repercussions. “It was a very productive year coming out of COVID. We want to help our clients and New York City to succeed as much as possible post-COVID,” she said.
Overall real estate is still the main industry in the NYC, as evident by the annual lobbying report. Some 40 percent of all lobbying business was geared towards the real estate /development/construction and engineering industry. That’s more than double the 16 percent of business which was accounted to the non-profit sector.
As per the Post, a lot of Kasirer’s clients are developers looking to attain zoning changes for their properties. The land use review procedures are exhaustive, and need input from the community boards and ultimately require an approval from the mayor as well as the City Council. One of Kasirer’s clients, South Street Seaport Limited, spent $1.77 million on lobbying last year, trying to get a zoning change. That was Kasiser’s biggest client for the year, and the company also hired four other firms. Kasirer’s second highest-billed client for the year was RXR Development, which spent $1 million on lobbying. The third company was NYS Trial Lawyers Association, which spent $742,846.
