New York lawmakers voted Wednesday to create a pathway for congressional committees to obtain President Donald Trump's state tax returns, potentially opening another avenue to get information that he has long concealed.
The bill, passed by the Democrat-controlled state Senate, doesn't target Trump by name but would authorize state tax officials to release any state returns filed in New York if requested by the leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee or the Joint Committee on Taxation.
It now goes to the state Assembly. Both chambers of the state Legislature are controlled by Democrats.
The bill's passage came a day after a New York Times investigation published Tuesday disclosed that Trump had reported more than $1 billion in core business losses from 1985 and 1994, according to tax information obtained by the Times.
The newspaper found that in some years, Trump appeared to have lost more money than any other single taxpayer.
The findings drew criticism from Trump, who said in a pair of Twitter posts Wednesday that showing "losses for tax purposes" was considered a "sport" among real estate developers like himself.
"Real estate developers in the 1980s & 1990s, more than 30 years ago, were entitled to massive write-offs and depreciation which would, if one was actively building, show losses and tax losses in almost all cases," the president wrote, adding, "You always wanted to show losses for tax purposes ... almost all real estate developers did."
Trump then called the Times' account "a highly inaccurate Fake News hit job!"
Neither Trump nor the White House offered any comment on the New York Senate bill that passed 39-21, along almost straight party lines, with Democrats delivering the votes to secure its passage.
The measure, which would amend state laws prohibiting private tax information from being released, isn't scheduled for a vote yet in the Assembly, where more than 90 Democrats in the 150-seat chamber support the legislation.
The New York bill wouldn't make Trump's returns public, but Congress could potentially decide to do so.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has said he supports legislation allowing the president's tax returns to be made public, but only if it also applies to all state lawmakers and statewide elected officials in New York.
Sen. Brad Hoylman, who sponsored the tax return bill, said the Senate's action was a direct result of Trump's refusal to make his federal returns public, as well as a decision by the Treasury Department on Monday to defy an order from House Democrats to do so.
"If they won't do it," Hoylman said, "New York can."
A tax return from New York could contain much of the same financial information as a federal return.
Hoylman has stressed that the bill would simply expand on current sharing of state tax information with federal officials, saying the "state tax department routinely supplies tax filing information to the IRS."
Earlier this week, the Treasury Department announced it would not release Trump's tax returns despite a formal request from House Democrats, kicking off a legal battle that will likely go to the Supreme Court.
The new details about the president's steep financial losses disclosed in the Times report provided the fullest picture yet of his taxes.
"Trump was perhaps the worst businessman in the world," said Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-N.J., a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.
"His entire campaign was a lie. He didn't pay taxes for years and lost over $1 billion -- how is that possible? How did he keep getting more money and where on earth was it all going? We need to know now."
Pascrell insisted that the IRS comply with his committee's request. "We now have another part of the truth," he said. "We need a lot more."
During a weekly meeting with reporters Wednesday, the House majority leader, Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, said the new details bolstered the Democrats' demand for Trump's tax returns. He dismissed Trump's longtime excuse that he was unable to release them because they were under audit.
"Presumably any time they get a piece of paper from Donald Trump, they put it under audit," he said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said that the revelations in the Times' report were not of interest to the average voter.
"What people are going to vote on is their economic well-being, not Trump's economic well-being in the '80s and '90s," Graham told reporters in Washington. "He's been great for the economy. So people are going to judge Trump based on their tax return, not his."
Information for this article was contributed by Jesse McKinley and Eileen Sullivan of The New York Times; and by Chris Carola of The Associated Press.
A Section on 05/09/2019