Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill Sunday that would have required presidential candidates to release their tax returns to get on California’s ballot.

The closely watched bill, which passed the state Legislature with wide Democratic support, was a jab at President Donald Trump, who broke with four decades of precedent when he declined to release his tax returns during the 2016 campaign. California would have been the first state to require candidates to release tax returns.

In his veto message, Brown said the possible legal problems outweighed the “political attractiveness” of requiring tax returns.

“While I recognize the political attractiveness — even the merits — of getting President Trump’s tax returns, I worry about the political perils of individual states seeking to regulate presidential elections in this manner,” he wrote.

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Brown echoed the argument of critics worried that the bill, SB149, would create a slippery slope where every state could have its own set of requirements for presidential candidates to get on the ballot.

“Today we require tax returns, but what would be next?” Brown asked. “Five years of health records? A certified birth certificate? High school report cards? And will these requirements vary depending on which political party is in power?”

The bill was a centerpiece of the Legislature’s effort to resist the Trump administration. But legal scholars were divided about whether it was constitutional, and it was sure to invite lawsuits.

Brown waited to address the tax returns bill until 11:56 p.m. Sunday — his last possible day to sign or veto bills. He didn’t release his own tax returns during his two most recent governors races, a decision he said he made because his opponents didn’t release theirs.

All four Democratic candidates for governor in 2018 — Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, former L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, state Treasurer John Chiang and former state schools Superintendent Delaine Eastin — told the Bay Area News Group last month that they support the bill. That means there’s a chance it could come back in 2019.

Newsom and Chiang have released their own tax returns, and Villaraigosa and Eastin have said they’ll release theirs as well.

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The governor did sign another bill this session that will move the state’s presidential primary from June to March, in an effort to boost California’s influence on the nomination and potentially hurt Trump’s re-election chances.