It’s payback time for Mayor de Blasio.
The mayor is rewarding former ACORN honcho and longtime pal Bertha Lewis by headlining a fund-raiser for her new group, The Black Institute.
“It’s a big deal for me. It’s a coup to have the mayor and Chirlane there. It’s The Black Institute’s coming-out party!” Lewis told The Post Wednesday night.
The invitation to the gala, which asks donors to contribute up to $50,000, is being held Thursday night at the 32BJ SEIU headquarters in Chelsea.
That’s big money for an organization that raised a total of $139,000 in 2012, the last year its tax returns were publicly posted.
Lewis is honoring the mayor and First Lady Chirlane McCray, whom she’s known for 20 years, as the institute’s Couple of the Year.
Even de Blasio’s kids, Chiara and Dante, have kicked in to help “Auntie Bertha” by appearing in Web videos touting the institute’s “G” project, which encourages New Yorkers to track their ancestry.
Lewis, respected as a fierce community organizer and campaigner, helped guide de Blasio’s campaign field operations for mayor.
She served on the mayor’s transition team, and some of her protégés now work at City Hall.
Lewis also has ties to controversial political consultant Scott Levenson, who is under federal investigation over accusations that he threatened mayoral candidate Christine Quinn for not supporting efforts to ban horse carriages.
Levenson represented NYCLASS, the group pushing the ban on horse carriages, and ran ads attacking Quinn.
Lewis and her institute share space with Levenson’s Advance Group.
But Lewis staunchly defended Levenson, calling the attacks on him “sour grapes.”
ACORN, a left-leaning advocacy group that Lewis headed, was disbanded in 2010 after investigations into its practices. The organization was later cleared by the General Accounting Office of any wrongdoing.