LOS ANGELES, July 31 (Xinhua/GNA) — California governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill Tuesday that will require presidential candidates to disclose the last five years of their taxes in order to appear on the state’s 2020 primary ballot.
Senate Bill 27, dubbed the « Presidential Tax Transparency and Accountability Act, » took effect immediately after Newsom signed it. The proposal requires all president and governor candidates to submit the last five years of their tax returns to the Secretary of State.
« The United States Constitution grants states the authority to determine how their electors are chosen, and California is well within its constitutional right to include this requirement, » Newsom wrote in a signing statement.
It is considered the Democratic-led state’s move to pressure U.S. President Donald Trump to reveal his financial information or risk being kept off the ballot.
While other states have pursued Trump’s taxes, California is the first one in the country to make the disclosure of tax returns a requirement for a ballot spot, according to local media report.