Posted on 01/23/2018 4:39:34 PM PST by jazusamo
Donald Trump was the first presidential candidate since Richard Nixon not to reveal his federal income tax return. Some Oregon Democrats want to try to make him the last.
A bill introduced Monday in Salem would require candidates for president and vice president to give a copy of their most recent tax return to the Oregon Secretary of State with written permission that the document can be made public. Alternatively, the candidate could fill out Oregon’s standard income disclosure form for public officials.
The requirement would apply to candidates on primary and general election ballots and those wishing to be in the voters’ pamphlet.
At least one political bigwig is already on board: Gov. Kate Brown.
“Governor Brown supports the principle of a financial disclosure requirement for presidential candidates,” said Bryan Hockaday, a spokesman for the governor.
Senate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick is the author of the bill introduced Monday. She said releasing tax returns is a time-honored tradition of transparency among presidential candidates. Trump changed everything, she said.
“He really challenged the custom and I think we need to take a fresh look at it,” Burdick said in a phone interview.
Burdick chairs the Senate Rules Committee, where Monday’s bill was introduced. She sponsored a similar bill last year and testified at its hearing that it would affirm “a long-standing tradition of financial disclosure” among presidential candidates. Most candidates for high office, including president, governor and members of Congress, voluntarily release their tax returns.
“Without this vital information, Oregon voters cannot accurately assess whether a conflict exists between a candidate’s financial interests and duties of the president or vice president of the United States,” Burdick testified.
The bill died in committee without a vote. Burdick said she thinks the “chances are pretty good” that her rewritten bill can pass with the requirement that, at a minimum, candidates must fill out an economic disclosure. Keeping the wording that would force candidates to reveal their tax returns is “a heavier lift,” she said.
Burdick added, “It’s hard to say where the discussion will lead.”
The Democrat-controlled Oregon Legislature could face legal troubles if it does pass an income tax disclosure requirement.
Former Sen. Ted Ferrioli, the Senate Minority Leader at the time a similar bill was debated last year, submitted as testimony an opinion from the Legislature’s legal office saying the concept “raises serious constitutional questions that do not have clear answers.”
It’s unclear how much power states have to regulate when presidential candidates can appear on ballots, a legislative attorney said in the opinion. A court could strike down Oregon’s attempt to change the rules, they cautioned.
Sal Peralta, secretary of the Independent Party of Oregon, testified on last year’s bill that it is “unlikely that states can add conditions to running for president.” The U.S. Constitution lists three requirements to run for president: be at least 35 years old, have lived in the United States for 14 years and be a “natural born citizen.”
Burdick said she does not think her bill would run into constitutional problems because it does not technically redefine the qualifications for president.
“It just applies to the people that the secretary of state can put on the ballot,” she said.
At least 23 states have introduced similar bills similar to the one Oregon has considered. New Jersey became the first to pass one, in 2017.
Last year, the California Legislature passed a forced-disclosure bill. But Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed it. At the time, he said the bill went too far despite its “political attractiveness.”
Brown said there are “political perils” to states regulating what presidential candidates must disclose to appear on ballots.
“Today we require tax returns, but what would be next? Five years of health records? A certified birth certificate? High school report cards? And will these requirements vary depending on which political party is in power?" Brown said in a veto message in October 2017.
That Trump did not make public his tax information has rankled his critics, some of whom suspect the documents would show that the president is not as wealthy as he portends, or that he has financial ties which leave him vulnerable to blackmail.
As a candidate, Trump said he would release his return when he is no longer under IRS audit. As president, he has said he might release the documents once he is no longer in office.
Blue Oregon is hive of villainy and scum.
You said it better than I could have.
Not sure they can add stipulations if one meets constitutional requirements
Won’t work, the Constitution lists who can run...
Absolutely, I lived there for 15 years but it’s worse now.
However there are many good people there, the central and northern I-5 corridor is the worst.
And they never asked Obama if he was a citizen or not.
He is donating his check to charity or back to the government so his tax return will show Zero on the taxable income line Lolololol
Nope, they didn’t care in the least because he’s a leftist commie.
Yes, especially since it would dox anyone doing business with Trump for politically motivated harassment.
The leftists seem to obsess on irrelevant, shiny objects.
Funny they don’t want a candidates’ birth certificate, grades and college record...
They want the POTUS to show his Tax Return because.....???
Isn’t President Trump’s Business in a Blind Trust now?
He has nothing to do with its day to day operations.
What’s the Tax Rate for $1 in earned Income?
Does POTUS Trump get a Social Security Check? I’m sure he has paid Millions into it.
Time to post the picture of the little boy at the soccer game!!
They want to make it hard for people to vote for him as he is winning hearts & minds.
No legal requirement for candidates to make their tax returns public.
How about the voters in oregon have to show their tax returns and photo ID in order to vote?
If not, then they can just STFU.
What’s another sh!thole.
Well all but $1.00
Yes, you have that right! We visited Portland last summer. What a dirty town! Black mold everywhere. I think it must be affecting their brains.
Just curious. Did Bill and Hill disclose their returns for 2016?
Trump isn’t winning Oregon anyway so he can simply refuse to comply knowing it won’t cost him, except maybe in GOP delegates at convention time.
You know, OR must have some really dumb lawyers because they should have known this: Not Constitutional
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.