US News

Gilly taxing credibility

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who has been hammering possible election rival Harold Ford Jr. daily to “come clean” about his taxes, wasn’t interested in releasing her own tax information when she first ran for Congress in 2006.

But when Gillibrand was under fire for months in the House race in the 20th congressional district by incumbent GOP Rep. John Sweeney to release her tax returns, she firmly refused to budge.

At the time, Gillibrand’s camp repeatedly refused, saying she had complied with federal disclosure laws requiring her to state her income amount. But Sweeney and critics noted that didn’t include her husband’s income.

Gillibrand angrily said she wouldn’t be “bullied” and accused Sweeney of sliming her — and turned tables on Sweeney, saying he needed to release lists of lobbyists who’d given to his campaign.

She noted at the time she’d filed the proper disculosures, which also listed her investments.

“I am not going to give in,” she said, according to the Albany Times Union. “He is not entitled to it, and I’m not going to let him bully me into it.”

Gillibrand and her aides have aggressively seized on a statement by Ford about his tax filings last week qwhere he said he would file his first New York return in April, issuing press releases saying it raised questions about whether he’s paid income taxes on income earned here — especially any bonus he may have received from Merrill Lynch.

GIllibrand herself told reporters that New Yorkers have a right to know. Team Ford initially appeared to give confusing answers, but his aides said over ther weekend he’s always filed and paid New York income tax and that this would be his first return as a state resident.

Gillibrand finally released her own taxes for the last several years, includign the pre-2006 period – but only in early 2009, after she was appointed to the Senate.

Asked about the appearance of “Do as a I say, not as I do,” Gillibrand spokesman Glen Caplin insisted, “We have never asked Harold Ford Jr. to release his taxes. The Gillibrand campaign is asking that he talk straight with New Yorkers and answer simple, straightforward, yes or no questions about whether he received taxpayer-backed bonuses for his work at Merrill Lynch and appropriately paid New York taxes on those bonuses.”