The outside group that backed Gov. Kathy Hochul's budget priorities with TV ads and mailers to New Yorkers this year ultimately raised $5.1 million for the effort from only two donors. 

A lobbying disclosure filing made public Monday showed a previously announced donation from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. An additional $100,000 was contributed to the group by United Refining Co., the company led by billionaire John Catsimatidis, a prominent figure in Republican circles in New York. 

Bloomberg had previously announced his involvement with the effort, which began earlier this year as a way to boost Hochul's budget proposal with voters. 

The group American Opportunity was used as a vehicle to promote Hochul's spending and policy plans in the budget, which ultimately became one of the latest agreed-to budgets in more than a decade after being approved in early May. 

Hochul had sought changes to New York's bail law as well as a statewide housing plan, the latter of which ultimately fell flat with the state Legislature. 

American Opportunity spent freely during Albany's budget season, which usually itensifies in March as a plan is expected to pass by the April 1 start of the fiscal year. A previous filing with lobbying regulators this year showed the group spent $4.7 million, mostly on TV ads, mailers and "online advocacy." 

American Opportunity was formed as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organizaton. 

The strategy of using a 501(c)(4) was not dissimilar from an effort a decade ago that centered around the Committee to Save New York, a consortium of business interests that supported then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo's fiscal policies. The entity disbanded before a new funding disclosure laws took effect.