Officials hatch plan to force Trump to release N.Y. state tax returns

Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y.

New York Democrats have hatched a plan to get a look at Donald Trump’s tax records by crafting a piece of legislation designed to get at his state returns that does everything but mention the Republican president by name.

The bill introduced this month in New York’s Senate and Assembly would require the state to release five years of state tax information for any president or vice president who files a New York state return.

While Trump’s state return wouldn’t include all the details from his federal return, it would offer the public much more information about the president’s potential conflicts of interest or how his finances would be impacted by his own tax cut proposal, according to supporters.

Democrats in New York and more than two dozen states have crafted bills that would require presidential candidates to release their federal returns in order to appear on that state’s ballot. None of those, however, would require Trump to release old returns. New York state “is in a unique position to change the national conversation,” according to Democratic Sen. Brad Hoylman, of Manhattan, because the president is a native New Yorker.

“This is drawing a line in the sand: Are you for transparency or not?” Hoylman said. “This is an issue of national security.”

The Democrat-led state Assembly is likely to support the measure but not the Senate, where Republicans are in charge.

“This sounds like a P.R. stunt,” said Scott Reif, a spokesman for the Senate GOP.

The requirement would also apply to the state’s two U.S. senators and top state positions like Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Schneiderman and Cuomo, both Democrats, have voluntarily released their tax returns for years.

Tax returns — state and federal — are almost always considered personal information and aren’t subject to public scrutiny. Every president since Jimmy Carter has released his tax returns.

Trump has so far refused, however, saying he would release them when the Internal Revenue Service completes an ongoing audit.

On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the president has no intention to release the documents and that Americans already have “plenty of information” about his finances.