Kalus says she will release her tax returns ... when McKee releases test scores and subpoenas
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PROVIDENCE — Republican candidate for governor Ashley Kalus says she will not release her tax returns – as she had earlier promised – until Gov. Dan McKee makes subpoenas and school test scores public.
"Ashley will gladly release her tax returns on the same day Dan McKee releases the subpoenas his administration has received and the RICAS scores," Kalus spokesman Matt Hanrahan said Wednesday.
"While the governor's call for Ashley to release her tax returns is purely political, she is willing to take any action to ensure parents have the necessary information about their children's education before heading to the polls," he said.
She is also upping her demand that he make public any subpoenas stemming from investigations into the education consulting contract his administration gave the ILO Group. He has thus far refused.
Previously: Gov. McKee releases state and federal tax returns. Will opponent Kalus do the same?
The response from McKee campaign manager Brexton Isaacs to Kalus' chess move: “It should raise serious alarm for voters that Ashley Kalus is going back on her word and refusing to release her tax returns.
"Voters have come to expect transparency from those running for Governor and this move by Ashley Kalus is reminiscent of Donald Trump's playbook."
"The people of Rhode Island know very little about Ashley Kalus and have legitimate questions about her background and her financial interests....and there are serious questions about what state she calls home," Isaacs said. "Voters should ask themselves, if Ashley Kalus can't even release her tax returns — a standard of those running for governor — what else is Ashley Kalus hiding?"
With few exceptions, every other candidate for governor in Rhode Island this year voluntarily made their state and federal tax returns public, including McKee, the Democratic incumbent, and former CVS executive Helena Foulkes, who placed second behind him in the Sept. 13 Democratic primary.
A newcomer to state politics, Foulkes made public five years worth of her tax history, the most recent revealing her eye-popping $9.6-million income in 2020.
The exceptions were Kalus, her low-profile GOP challenger Jonathan Riccitelli and Democratic primary candidate Luis Daniel Munoz.
Kalus said she would release her tax returns earlier this year
Back on April 19, however, in response to a Journal inquiry, Kalus' campaign sent this statement: "Ashley had to file for an extension, but will release her returns upon completion."
The McKees' returns – made public earlier this week after they too requested an extension – reveal little new about their Rhode Island-centric life, beyond his salary as governor, her pension as a retired public school reading teacher, and their Social Security benefits.
But Kalus is a relatively new arrival to Rhode Island. And she has not yet answered this question: Which state did she and her husband, Jeffrey Weinzweig, file resident tax returns for 2021?
On her financial disclosure filings with the state Ethics Commission earlier this year, she indicated that Doctors Test Centers – the entity created by her plastic surgeon husband that had state testing and vaccination contracts – paid her between $500,001 and $1 million in 2021.
The filing did not provide a full picture. It is unclear, for example, to which state Kalus and her husband – Jeffrey Weinzweig – paid their resident taxes in 2021, whether it was Florida — where Kalus was registered to vote until the day after she declared her run for governor — or Illinois, where she had a "homestead exemption" on a home.
On a bank filing, she and her husband declared the house they bought in Newport in May 2021 as a second home.
On Wednesday, the Democratic Governors Association blasted out an email saying:
"Rhode Islanders don’t even know what state Kalus paid taxes to last year.
"Was it Florida, where she was registered to vote until she declared she was running for governor of Rhode Island? Or was it Illinois, where she had a tax exemption on her property taxes meant for permanent residents?" DGA Senior Communications Advisor Christina Amestoy asked.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Kalus: No tax returns until McKee releases subpoenas, RICAS scores
