New York – Gubernatorial Candidates Playing Chicken on Tax Returns

New York – With a week left in the governor’s race, candidates Andrew Cuomo and Carl Paladino have turned the issue of whether they’ll release their 2009 income-tax returns into a contest of “I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours.”

Messrs. Cuomo and Paladino filed for six-month extensions in April, but neither has disclosed what was eventually filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

Last week, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo said the Democratic contender would make public his returns “shortly.” On Monday, the campaign declined to say when the attorney general, who disclosed unofficial estimates earlier this year, would make available his forms.

Mr. Paladino, a real-estate developer and landlord with a net worth estimated at $150 million, “is considering releasing his taxes, and will await news on Andrew’s intentions,” Mr. Paladino’s campaign manager, Michael Caputo, said in a statement on Monday.

Mr. Caputo said later that Mr. Paladino, who hasn’t released any income information, had decided that he wouldn’t be the first to release his tax records.

“If Andrew Cuomo releases his tax returns, Carl will,” he said.

By law, the candidates are not required to make public their taxes. In the interest of transparency, it has been a frequent practice for New York candidates for governor to do so. Eliot Spitzer and John Faso in 2006 disclosed copies of their filings in April that year.

In the summer, Mr. Cuomo’s campaign surrogates repeatedly criticized Messrs. Paladino and his Republican primary challenger at the time, Rick Lazio, for not showing reporters their tax records.

“Lazio’s stonewalling is even more insulting when you consider that he promised to make his tax returns public!” said Charlie King, the executive director of the state Democratic Party, in a June statement.

“The fact that he’s dragging his feet in making good on that promise makes one wonder not just whether he’s hiding something but whether he’s a man of his word.”

In April, Mr. Cuomo provided reporters with preliminary estimates for his 2009 returns. Beyond his $144,000-a-year salary as state attorney general, he said earned less than $10,000 from interest and dividends. He also disclosed $28,000 in capital gains from a limited partnership, POA Partners, which traded in equities and was dissolved last year.

Mr. Paladino did not disclose any preliminary estimates.

The same issue flared for Mr. Cuomo when he ran for attorney general in 2006. That year, Mr. Cuomo also filed for extension in April and indicated then that he would make his 2005 taxes public after he filed them.

In November 2006, a spokeswoman for Mr. Cuomo’s campaign for attorney general told the Associated Press that the campaign would not “release anything” until Mr. Cuomo’s Republican opponent, former Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro, released her returns.

Mr. Cuomo also filed for extensions in subsequent years and provided preliminary estimates. The campaign said it showed the full returns for tax years 2006, 2007, and 2008 to reporters who asked to see them.