Editorial: Tax return requirement a ridiculous overreach

When Donald Trump refused to release his tax returns during the presidential campaign, it was an affront to transparency and long-held tradition. But it wasn’t illegal, just suspiciously secretive.

Trump’s excuse that he was being audited was just that: an excuse. There’s no law that would have stopped him from publicly disclosing his returns during an audit, but enough voters decided it didn’t matter. That should be the end of the sad story.

But if two legislators in California have their way, future candidates for the White House will have to make public five years’ worth of tax returns at least 50 days before the general election, or else they’ll be left off the state’s ballot. A similar bill has been proposed by a Democratic legislator in New York, the proposed title making clear its intended target: Tax Returns Uniformly Made Public, or the TRUMP Act.

It is a constitutionally questionable proposal, to put it mildly. The U.S. Constitution gives states authority over the selection of presidential electors, but it doesn’t empower states to set qualifications for the presidency over and above the ones set forth in the Constitution itself.

Of course we would like to see Trump’s tax returns, which would reveal more about his financial entanglements than the disclosure forms he has filed. To whom is he indebted? Could those lenders call in favors in the form of policy changes? These concerns are why Trump should divest himself thoroughly of his ties to the Trump empire.

But state governments ought not to require presidential candidates to disclose tax returns, especially if doing so opens the door to other politically motivated requirements. What will be next, requiring drug tests?

The legislators behind this bill, state Sens. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) and Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), insist that this proposal isn’t a partisan attack but an earnest push for transparency. If that’s true, where were they when Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown declined to release his tax records during his last two campaigns? Why not include state and other federal candidates?

Right now, the state’s Democratic leaders are preparing for an all-out fight with the incoming administration over real issues such as immigration and Medi-Cal funding. They don’t have time to spend on pointless side scuffles such as this proposal. So far, this bill exists only in draft form. That’s where it should stay.

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