The amount that New York City cultural institutions spend annually to lobby City Hall, the state legislature, and Congress has increased steadily over the last five years, the New York Times reports.

Cultural groups, some of which rely on public-sector funds for as much as 25 percent of their operating revenue, claim that increased competition for tax dollars and charitable donations, particularly since 9/11, has made it necessary for them to employ professional lobbyists. But critics of the practice say it is unseemly for public nonprofit organizations to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to convince legislators and government agencies to give them money.

"It's a pretty sorry state of affairs when our libraries and other public institutions have to hire professional lobbyists to lobby for public support," said Neal Rosenstein, government reform coordinator for the New York Public Interest Research Group.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, for example, has spent more than $500,000 lobbying the city over the past five years, while the Brooklyn Public Library, which was created by an act of the state legislature, spent $275,000 in 2003 on professional lobbyists. And many smaller groups spend proportionally more than that on lobbyists.

Some city officials and representatives of cultural groups argue that the increased use of lobbyists can be attributed to the intricacies of New York City's annual budget-setting dance. "Most organizations would prefer not to have a lobbyist, but it is the peculiarity of the budget system that makes it important for many of them to have one," said Lowrey Sims, executive director of the Studio Museum in Harlem and chairwoman of the Cultural Institutions Group, a special unit within the city's Department of Cultural Affairs.

But Kate D. Levin, the city's cultural affairs commissioner, rejected that notion. "There has been as impulse among many institutions to lobby the [City] Council, because that's where you can get additional money," said Levin. But, she added, "You don't need lobbyists to lobby us. I feel very strongly that you shouldn't have to hire lobbyists to talk to me. You can come see me."