When activists in New York get together to send letters to their elected officials, they pool together money to pay for postcards, stamps, and even pizza to chow on as they do their work. Printing out flyers to advertise their events can also cost a pretty penny.

These efforts are almost always volunteer-funded, but if Gov. Andrew Cuomo gets his way, activist organizations will have to register as lobbyists if they spend $500 a year on such activities.

A lobbying proposal tucked away in Cuomo’s executive budget would lower the annual spending threshold for what counts as lobbying from $5,000 to $500 — requiring grassroots organizations, run largely by volunteers, that engage in even a bit of issue-based advocacy to register as lobbyists.

Cuomo’s Good Government and Ethics Reform law comes after a year in which the governor faced a primary challenge from the left and faced pressure from grassroots groups to disband the Independent Democratic Conference, a group of Democrats who caucused with Republicans and gave them a constructive majority in a Democrat-held state Senate.

Other lobbying reforms included in the package are a requirement for lobbyists to disclose campaign contributions; a ban that would prevent political consultants from lobbying elected officials whose campaign they previously worked for; and increased penalties for lobbyists who fail to follow disclosure rules. The lobbying reforms will be considered in negotiations with the legislature ahead of an April 1 budget deadline.

Activist organizations say the spending threshold proposal is meant to attack and stifle grassroots movements, which backed Cuomo’s primary opponent, Cynthia Nixon, and helped vote IDC members out of office. Some opponents say the move — which would subject regular volunteers, with full-time jobs and children, to the same reporting requirements as professional, paid lobbyists — appears to be vindictive.

More than 100 grassroots groups across the state last week signed onto a legislative memo, saying they are “strongly opposed” to the measure. Signatories to the memo, spearheaded by the True Blue NY grassroots coalition, include organizations that were formed after the 2016 election, like dozens of local Indivisible chapters and Rise and Resist, as well as groups that have long advocated for more progressive policies, like Concerned Citizens For Change.

“Unlike actual lobbyists, the high school students, retirees, public school parents and others who devote their spare time to state politics, whether as individuals or as members of grassroots groups like Indivisible, do not work on behalf of a monied special interest,” the memo said. “We are not paid for our efforts. Rather, our groups rely on their volunteers chipping in whatever they can.”

Opponents say the $500 threshold is unrealistically low and can be met quickly. Ricky Silver, a lead organizer for the progressive group Empire State Indivisible, told The Intercept that for a group like his, the cost of renting a charter bus for volunteers to make a trip or two to Albany is enough to reach the spending threshold. The group tries to keep expenses down to an absolute minimum, he said, and didn’t come close to reaching the threshold of $5,000 last year. But $500 annually is “an impossibly low bar,” given that in a typical week members might have to spend money on clipboards and pens to go out to a park and get signatures or on donuts and coffee. Having to collect receipts from volunteers and keeping track of the frequent expenses on top of filing spending reports will stifle engagement, he added.

In January, Empire State Indivisible, in addition to other advocacy groups, went down to Albany to lay out their policy priorities for the first 100 days of the newly elected Senate majority, including comprehensive campaign finance reform; and small-donor match, publicly financed elections; voting right reforms; and “Medicare for All.”

The measure would also create logistical and financial burdens. Registered lobbyists are required to complete a mandatory online ethics training and pay a fee of $200, according to the lobbying manual of the the New York state Joint Commission on Public Ethics. They would also have to fulfill the reporting requirements, which include filing spending reports a minimum of six times per year and submitting semi-annual reports.

“We are not set up with the legal resources or the accounting resources or the time to spend on what would be the requirements,” Silver said. He added that, beyond his individual group, “the lack of confidence in what the rules would be, would also be a big deterrent for individuals.”

When asked about the opposition from progressive groups, Rich Azzopardi, a senior adviser to Cuomo, said the lobbying proposal is part of a larger suite of changes the governor is trying to enact: “It’s not just lobbying reform. It’s lobbying reform, and campaign finance reform, and independent expenditure reform, and voting reform, and procurement reform,” Azzopardi wrote in an emailed statement. “It’s all related and we have an unprecedented opportunity to increase transparency and disclosure and improve our democracy for the better. The fact that some self-described reform groups are against reform speaks to the problem in better ways than I can.”