Progressives for Sale

Paying off the folks who helped you rise to power is nothing new. But it’s an odd way to deliver on rhetoric about bringing “a new progressive direction to New York.”

BerlinRosen, the PR/lobbying firm behind Bill de Blasio’s mayoral run, enjoys unrivaled insider access at City Hall — even as it represents firms doing business with the city.

And now Melissa MarkViverito has lavished over $1 million in taxpayerfunded pork on the clients of a lobbying firm that helped her become City Council speaker.

As The Post’s Rich Calder reported Tuesday, 14 nonprofit clients of Pitta Bishop Del Giorno & Giblin won $1.08 million in council discretionary funds — $780,000 of it from MarkViverito herself.

Council members have long used this pool of cash to buy support, without anyone vot ing on where the money goes. De Blasio has called rightly for an end to the practice — but hasn’t lifted a finger to try to abolish it.

Which brings us back to his relationship with the firm of BerlinRosen — which also runs de Blasio’s external nonprofit, the Campaign for One New York, which has raised $2 million from publicworker unions, individuals and firms that do business with the city.

BerlinRosen, as NY1 recently reported, not only enjoys close access to the mayor, it also consults for candidates and then turns around to advise the groups and interests trying to influence those same politicians.

Yes, it’s the way City Hall has done business since time immemorial. But de Blasio and MarkViverito were supposed to be different. It won’t be the last time their practices fall far short of their preaching.