CUOMO-WORLD STRATEGIST REPS TRUMP DONORS’ CAUSE: Cuomo’s former campaign manager is representing a trade association bankrolled by a Trump donor-led company in a fraught battle within the state’s home care industry. The revelation comes as Cuomo went up against Trump's Covid legacy today — a congressional hearing that included Republicans raking him over the coals. During the final days of budget negotiations, the Legislature and governor included a budget measure to consolidate the state’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program. Fiscal intermediaries serve as the middlemen between consumers, home care workers and medicaid services within the state-run program. The Gov. Kathy Hochul-supported decision to limit the program to a single fiscal intermediary — which is opposed by 26 Democratic state Senators and the entire GOP House delegation — was a cost-cutting move meant to streamline the program. The state Department of Health has until October 1 to choose a single company. But in a last-minute push, the at-least 600 fiscal intermediaries have launched a furious campaign to have Hochul reverse her decision, arguing it creates an effective monopoly within the program. Within that push, the Alliance to Protect Home Care, the trade association representing the fiscal intermediaries, paid $658,143 to public affairs firm Moxie Strategies. The firm is led by well-known Democrat and ex-Cuomo adviser Maggie Moran, his last campaign manager who was looped in on key communications with the former governor during the final days before his ouster. And the Moran-connected Alliance to Protect Home Care is bankrolled by three different home care businesses that have committed various wage theft violations, according to findings by state and federal authorities published by city Comptroller Brad Lander’s office last week. One of them, Paramount Homecare Agency, which had two wage theft violations levied against them by the state Department of Labor, is also led by serial Trump donors. Paramount’s CEO, Mariya Offengeym, has a salary of $1,075,000, records show. Its COO, Roman Offengeym, makes $645,000 and Daniel Offengeym, the Director of Patient Services, earns $364,000. Daniel has made hundreds of contributions to Trump’s 2024 campaign and Republican causes, totaling to over $7,000 this year. Mariya also donated over $3,500 to different PACs backing Trump between 2020 and 2021. In June, records show Offengeym’s firm gave $50,000 to the trade association represented by Moxie Strategies, which works on “Progressive Advocacy Issues,” according to its website. “It is particularly disappointing that a Democratic consulting firm has taken over $600,000 from companies profiting on the back of home care consumers and low-wage workers for a campaign aimed at keeping these taxpayer-funded profits flowing,” said Helen Schaub, the Interim Political Director for 1199SEIU, which supports Hochul’s push for a single fiscal intermediary. Reached for comment, Roman Offengeym threatened to sue Playbook for “libel, defamation and slander.” “We employ hundreds of workers, and thousands over the years,” he said in response to Lander’s findings. “We have never stolen from our employees.” Moran issued her own statement, saying: “I am proud to fight for disabled and elderly New Yorkers in need so they can have the choice to receive critical care in the comfort and security of their own home. There is agreement from democrats and republicans that Gov. Hochul’s plan doesn’t work and threatens to force thousands into nursing or group homes.” — Jason Beeferman
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