PROVIDENCE, R.I. Rhode Island is the latest state taking steps to require candidates for president and vice-president to make their tax returns public as a prerequisite to getting on the Rhode Island ballot. 
 
 The state Senate 34-to-3 for a bill to require candidates on a presidential ticket to release tax returns going back five years. 
 
 As noted by the lead sponsor, Sen. Gayle Goldin, every president since The Providence Journal exposed Richard Nixon's tax returns has made them public voluntarily, until Donald Trump. 
 
 Republican Sen. Elaine Morgan of Hopkinton asked why the president should have to do that, if state lawmakers face no such requirement. 
 
 Goldin argued — and the majority in the Democrat-dominated Senate agreed — that "tax returns provide essential information about candidates' conflicts of interest,'' and other vital information to a voter weighing a decision. But questions have been raised, as similar proposals bubbled to the surface elsewhere, about the constitutionality of states adopting their own requirements for candidates to get on the federal ballot. 
 
 The bill known as H2612 now goes to the House. 

 Rhode Island’s state Senate passed a bill this week that would keep candidates off the presidential ballot in their state if they don’t release five years' worth of tax returns, according to the Providence Journal. 
 
 State Sen. Gayle Goldin (D), who sponsored the bill, noted that every presidential candidate since Richard Nixon had released their tax returns voluntarily until President Trump Donald John TrumpMcMaster complained that Trump 'thinks he can be friends with Putin': report Manafort requests Virginia trial be moved, citing media coverage Giuliani: Mueller needs to prove Trump committed crime before agreeing to interview MORE ran for office. 
 
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 Trump has repeatedly claimed that he cannot release his tax returns because he is under audit, but the IRS said an audit does not prevent a candidate from releasing their personal tax information. 
 
 Goldin argued that “tax returns provide essential information about candidates’ conflicts of interest.” 
 
 Tax returns, she continued, are vital information a voter needs to know about a candidate at the ballot box. 
 
 The bill passed the Democratic-majority Senate on a 34-3 vote. It now moves to the Rhode Island state House. 

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 PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP/WPRI) -- The Rhode Island Senate has passed a bill that would require presidential and vice presidential candidates to file five years' worth of tax returns in order to appear on the state's ballots. 
 
 The Senate voted 33-3 to pass the measure. A House version has been held in a committee. 
 
 Senate spokesman Greg Pare says if the bill becomes law, President Donald Trump wouldn't appear on a future ballot unless he filed his returns. 
 
 Democratic Sen. Gayle Goldin, who sponsored the bill, did not explicitly mention Trump in vouching for the policy on the Senate floor. She did say that "this president" was the first since Richard Nixon to not voluntarily release his tax returns. 
 
 Goldin says the tax returns contain essential information about conflicts of interest that is not otherwise available to the public. 
 
 Independent gubernatorial candidate Joe Trillo, who served as chairman of Trump's campaign in Rhode Island in 2016, criticized the Senate bill earlier this week as "one of the most absurd things I've ever heard of." He added that Goldin should be "ashamed" of the measure.
– Gayle Goldin wants to make sure future presidential candidates fully reveal any potential conflicts of interest. That's why the Democratic state senator from Rhode Island is now sponsoring a bill that would require Oval Office hopefuls to release five years' worth of tax returns—meaning President Trump could see his name kept off that state's ballot if he doesn't comply during his reelection run, per the Hill. The Providence Journal reports that the bill, which would have the same stipulation for VP candidates, has already passed the state Senate in a 34-3 vote and is now headed to the House. Goldin notes that until Trump, no presidential candidate since Richard Nixon had balked at voluntarily providing their tax returns. Although the bill sailed through the Democratic-controlled Senate, not all Rhode Islanders are happy about it. GOP state Sen. Elaine Morgan argues that state lawmakers don't have the same tax-return mandate, while Joe Trillo, an independent running for governor (and former chief of Trump's 2016 campaign there) goes a bit further. He says Goldin should be "ashamed" for trying to get passed "one of the most absurd things I've ever heard of," per the AP.