Brown vetoes tax-disclosure bill for presidential candidates

Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed legislation that would have required presidential candidates to release five years of income tax returns before their names could appear on the California ballot.

SB149, which was approved in the Legislature largely along party lines, does not mention President Trump, but it clearly targeted the commander in chief, the first in 40 years to withhold his tax documents from the public. He is an announced candidate for re-election in 2020.

“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,” Brown wrote in his veto message Sunday. “First, it may not be constitutional. Second, it sets a ‘slippery slope’ precedent. Today, we require tax returns, but what would be next?”

In this Oct. 11, 2017, photo, President Donald Trump speaks about tax reform during an event at the Harrisburg International Airport in Middletown, Pa. Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill that would have required presidential candidates to disclose five years of tax returns before their name could appear on the ballot. less In this Oct. 11, 2017, photo, President Donald Trump speaks about tax reform during an event at the Harrisburg International Airport in Middletown, Pa. Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill that would have required ... more Photo: Alex Brandon, Associated Press Photo: Alex Brandon, Associated Press Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Brown vetoes tax-disclosure bill for presidential candidates 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

Brown declined to release his own tax returns during his successful campaigns for governor in 2010 and 2014, breaking with California tradition. Trump has said he could not disclose his taxes because he was being audited by the Internal Revenue Service. Neither the IRS nor federal law, however, prohibits disclosing tax returns during an audit.

A similar disclosure bill this spring was passed by New Jersey’s Democratic-controlled Legislature, but Republican Gov. Chris Christie vetoed it, deriding it as an unconstitutional “form of therapy” by Democrats unwilling to accept the election results.

The California bill, by Democratic state Sens. Mike McGuire of Healdsburg and Scott Wiener of San Francisco drew legal scrutiny during the legislative process because of court rulings preventing states from setting qualifications for federal candidates. The Legislative Counsel’s office, the legal adviser to California lawmakers, said the measure was probably unconstitutional because it sought to “influence voters” and would handicap certain candidates, thus interfering with the election process.

But Richard Painter, an ethics adviser to President George W. Bush, and Norman Eisen, who held the same post for President Barack Obama, said SB149 sought only to inform voters and were within a state’s authority to regulate access to the ballot.

Such measures “require federally qualified candidates to comply with a relatively minor process of tax disclosure — something any candidate can readily do — in order to allow voters to make more fully informed judgments,” they said.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Melody Gutierrez contributed to this report.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko