SERVICE EMPLOYEES (SEIU) / ELECTIONS & POLITICS
SEIU Local Breaks New York Lobbying Record
In Dec. 1999, N.Y. Gov. George Pataki (R) and Dennis Rivera,
head of an "immensely" powerful Service Employees Int'l Union Local 1199,
hammered out the details of a multibillion-dollar plan to drastically change
health care in N.Y. Rivera had spent millions of dollars on advertisements
-more than any other lobbying force in state history -to generate public
support for his issue and to ensure that he would have a prominent place
at the table, though the Legislature would have to agree to any deal.
On Mar. 30, the price tag for lobbying effort by the Healthcare Education Project, of which Local 1199 was the largest member, was revealed: almost $15 million, enough to make Local 1199 and its allies the state's biggest lobbying spenders ever-by 10-fold. All told, lobbyists on both sides of the health care debate spent $17.8 million, almost a quarter of the $ 71.9 million spent by all state advocates last year, according to figures released by the state's Temporary Commission on Lobbying. Only a year before, New York Life Ins. Co. became the first lobbyist to break the $1 million barrier.
"We make no apologies; we're proud we spent the money for all we achieved, " said Ken Sunshine, Rivera's spokesman. "We would have spent more." [Newsday, N.Y. Post 3/31/00]
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