NYC’s New Top Lobbyist

New York City has a new lobbying queen, but the rest of the influence-peddling industry is hardly suffering in a City Hall where the well-connected hold sway.

Indeed, the annual report from the City Clerk’s office shows that compensation reported by those seeking de Blasio administration favors for their clients hit $95.6 million last year, a 25 percent increase since the mayor first took office in 2014. Clearly, business is good. Topping the list is mega-lobbyist Suri Kasirer, a de Blasio pal for three decades and major bundler to his campaigns. She raked in $11.4 million to lobby city government.

Close behind is the former No. 1, Jim Capalino, who with $11.2 million in billings clearly hasn’t been suffering since the mayor publicly cut ties with him in 2016.

Capalino, of course, had an early hand in the Rivington nursing-home scandal that cost the Lower East Side a health-care facility in favor of luxury condos and an enormous profit for the developers.

Kasirer represents Reliant Transportation, which the city has paid $136 million above the contracted amount so it can pay more to schoolbus drivers. She’s also one of several lobbyists representing NYCLASS, the animal-rights group behind de Blasio’s drive to kill the horse-carriage industry over popular opposition.

And she has strong ties to new City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who recently hired one of her firm’s vice presidents as his deputy chief of staff.

Yes, lobbyists serve a legitimate function in government. But this is an administration where those with connections enjoy a decided advantage over everyone else.