R.I. bill would require presidential hopefuls to release tax returns

PROVIDENCE, R.I.  Rhode Island is the latest state taking steps to require candidates for president and vice-president to make their tax returns public as a prerequisite to getting on the Rhode Island ballot.

The state Senate  34-to-3 for a bill to require candidates on a presidential ticket to release tax returns going back five years.

As noted by the lead sponsor, Sen. Gayle Goldin, every president since The Providence Journal exposed Richard Nixon's tax returns has made them public voluntarily, until Donald Trump.

Republican Sen. Elaine Morgan of Hopkinton asked why the president should have to do that, if state lawmakers face no such requirement.

Goldin argued — and the majority in the Democrat-dominated Senate agreed — that "tax returns provide essential information about candidates' conflicts of interest,'' and other vital information to a voter weighing a decision.  But questions have been raised, as similar proposals bubbled to the surface elsewhere, about the constitutionality of states adopting their own requirements for candidates to get on the federal ballot.

The bill known as H2612 now goes to the House.