Hogan Says He Doesn't Plan To Release Tax Returns
BOWIE, Md. (AP) -- Republican candidate for governor Larry Hogan said Saturday he won't make his income tax returns public, because his opponent, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, has declined to release his.
"Well, since he said he wouldn't, I mean, we would have done it probably simultaneous with his, but since he's refusing to do so, we're certainly not going to," Hogan said.
Brown declined to release his returns when asked on Friday in an interview after a forum in Towson. Brown said he believes 16 years of financial disclosure forms he has released as lieutenant governor and a state delegate provide sufficient information on his finances for Maryland voters. Financial statements filed with the state require disclosure about real estate and equity interests and debts, but they don't provide the same details about a person's finances as a tax return.
Candidates are not required by law to make their tax returns public, though it is not uncommon for candidates in other states to release at least some of their returns.
Brown makes $125,000 a year as Maryland's lieutenant governor. Hogan is a real estate broker. In 1995, Hogan filed for bankruptcy after new federal lending rules caused a string of bank failures, and new bank owners called in all of his loans. Hogan said in a June interview with The Associated Press that he now has a successful real estate business.
In Maryland's last governor's race in 2010, former Gov. Robert Ehrlich, a Republican, voluntarily released partial tax returns in his rematch with Gov. Martin O'Malley, who made his tax returns available to reporters a day after Ehrlich. Ehrlich's returns showed income he had earned while working in the private sector after he left office in 2007.
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