'Committee to Save' - with a license to spend

The Committee to Save New York, a business-backed consortium that helped Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo through the advertising wars, spent $4.8 million lobbying the Legislature and buying ad time in March and April alone, according to a new report filed with the state Commission on Public Integrity.

(LIA President Kevin Law, in photo, is a member of the committee).

The private-sector spending spree came just as Cuomo and legislators were putting the finishing touches on the state’s $132.5-billion budget, which cut spending in a wide range of areas, but allowed a surcharge on high-earning New Yorkers to expire. The Committee to Save New York pushed hard for the expiration.

According to the report, the Committee spent about $4 million on TV, radio and Internet advertising; the rest on public relations, research, printing, mailing and phone banks.

The committee previously had reported spending about $2.6 million in January and February.