New York’s Democratic governor said late Monday that he would support state legislation designed to pry loose President Trump’s tax records.
The office of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said he will back a bill that would permit the New York Department of Taxation and Finance to give to Congress any person’s state tax return.
The limiting requirement, The New York Times reported, would be the state would have to receive requests from three congressional committees for any “specified and legitimate legislative purpose.”
“As long as it applies to everybody,” Richard Azzopardi, a senior adviser to the governor and persistent Trump critic, said, “we support it.”
State Sen. Brad Hoylman, Manhattan Democrat, is sponsoring the bill, which a Senate official told The Times on condition of anonymity will likely come up for debate this week with passage possible before the month’s end. The bill has not been formally discussed in conference in the solidly Democratic state legislature.
“Making sure that the public has information about the man currently in the White House is something that I feel is incumbent upon us to make sure is released,” said Assemblyman David Buchwald, Westchester County Democrat and the sponsor of a similar bill in that chamber. “There’s a copy of President Trump’s New York State tax returns right here in New York State, in an office somewhere.”
Mr. Trump became a national figure in the 1980s as a New York real-estate investor and his organization is still headquartered in the Big Apple. His state tax returns would likely, therefore, have all the same information as the federal returns that he is refusing to release.
Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie said the issue will come before his chamber, though he cautioned that lawyers would still need to vet any specific requests for any state tax returns.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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