Mayor Bill White: You need to show us the money.
Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison, the two people who dueled for the Republican nomination for governor last week, have both released their personal income tax returns for the past several years.
Annise Parker and Gene Locke, the two people who dueled for Bill White's old job last December, have both released their personal income tax returns for the past several years after they were asked to do so by Texas Watchdog.
But when asked to release his personal income tax returns, White, the new Democratic nominee for governor, balked.
White pointed out that he has filed the city of Houston financial disclosure forms, but he declined to promise to release his income tax returns as Perry has done. White said he would release information on the returns if there (were) specific questions ...
WHITE: We'll give you and others information that you ask for about, boy, since 2003, I've had most all of that in the financial statements. But I have been, there has been, during much of that time a partnership interest and a partnership return attached to the tax returns. But I'll provide the various adjusted gross income and stuff like that, and a lot of it, but not those schedules ... I'm a partner, we're, other people are partners in those businesses, and those tax returns are proprietary.
The people who are partners in those businesses need to understand that these are the breaks when one of your business partners becomes a leading candidate for governor. If Parker's business partners and Locke's colleagues at Andrews Kurth law firm had such objections, they got over them.
The financial disclosure forms turned in by White and other city leaders are helpful but nowhere near as complete as tax returns. The disclosure forms require numbers to be reported within ranges and not in specific figures -- for instance, did your partnership in Smith & Co. generate less than $5,000 in income, $5,001-$25,000 in income, or more than $25,000 in income? And that stock you own in Company XYZ -- do you own less than 500 shares, between 501-1,000 shares, or more than 1,0001 shares? Is it bigger than a breadbox?
In other words, if Bill Gates had to fill out that form, he'd only have to report he made more than $25,000 in income. As silly as this sounds, it's true, and it has happened in real life -- Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who is said to be a multimillionaire from his energy-related interests, was at one time reporting that he made more than $25,000 a year in proceeds from a blind trust.
And, without accusing the former mayor (or any of the above-mentioned people) of wrongdoing, it's harder for people to lie on their tax returns to Uncle Sam than it is to lie on the financial disclosure forms. You lie on the disclosure form, the state Ethics Commission may fine you a few hundred bucks -- if they ever find out you lied. You lie on your tax return, you can go to jail even if you're Al Capone and totin' a Tommy gun.
So, come on, Mayor White. Show us the money.
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