Total lobbying spending in New York state reached nearly $67 million from March to April, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by the state Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (COELIG).

That amount is up $1.3 million from January to February.

Making up the lion’s share of that $67 million was lobbying compensation — $59.6 million — followed by expenses at $7 million.

The top three retained lobbyists, ranked by compensation only, were Brown & Weinraub Advisors, LLC, followed by Kasirer LLC at $3.0 million and Bolton-St Johns, LLC at $2.9 million.

The state’s ethics panel releases lobbying data every two months.

“Lobbying spending in March and April surpassed spending in the first two months of the year, with 17 out of 20 of the most lobbied bills focusing on the state budget and its related Article VII bills, which is no surprise,” COELIG Executive Director Berland said. “New Yorkers have the right to accessible and transparent data, especially data showing who is attempting to influence those individuals or agencies within our state government. Releasing this data every two months allows the public to see lobbying trends as they shift throughout the year.”

The top two most lobbied bills not related to the state budget were those that would enact the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act, which would phase out materials and target chemical recycling, institute a fee for plastic packaging to be paid to municipalities and provide initiatives to regulate recycling infrastructure and weed out materials not easily recycled.

The third most lobbied non-budget bill was one commonly known as the NY HEAT Act, which would enact the NY Home Energy Affordable Transition Act and repeals certain provisions of the public service law relating to gas service and sale. That legislation was recently tweaked to become the Customer Savings and Reliability Act with some significant changes.