Paul Vallas, a candidate for Chicago mayor, said that voters should not put their faith in someone who does not release their tax returns. Vallas was one of only six candidates in the Chicago mayoral field of 21 to release his tax returns. (Chicago’s Morning Answer photo)

Chicago mayoral candidate Paul Vallas has called on the 15 candidates for mayor who have refused to release their most recent tax returns to do so immediately.

He said failure to do so should be looked at by voters with the assumption that they have major issues they are hiding. Vallas noted that every mayor of Chicago, for more than 30 years, has fully disclosed their taxes.

“It is absolutely expected by the voters,” he said.

In a statement, Vallas said:

“Chicago has serious problems. Violent crime has spread through the city with 23,000 people shot in the past eight years alone. The financial situation is, by many measurements, the worst of any big city in the country. Our taxes have been elevated to their highest levels in our 185-year history. We have a school system that needs major improvements for our children. This is no time for our next mayor to be veiled in secrecy.

“Chicagoans need to know that their leader is being open, honest and fully aligned with the voters. It’s not an option: mayoral candidates need to make their tax returns public or the voters should assume that they have bad things to hide.”

Noting that only six of the 21 candidates for mayor have released their tax returns, Vallas, who was one of those candidates, stated that not releasing personal tax returns is a red flag.

“Several of the candidates that have not released their full tax returns are multimillionaires that promote themselves as ‘smart and successful in the business sector’ simply because they have been able to accumulate substantial personal wealth,” Vallas said.

He added:

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with being successful in business, but voters should get to see if these candidates actually took risk and built a successful business or if they simply became a member of the ‘for-profit political class in Chicago’ where they leveraged their clout or last name to garner millions of dollars for themselves at the expense of everyday Chicagoans.

“If they made all their money leveraging their political clout, we should then be able to see how much they gave back to Chicago neighborhoods, the voters and our causes. Do we really want our next mayor to have a track record of personally benefiting to the tune of millions or tens of millions of dollars over their life simply by leveraging their clout? For most voters, the answer is a resounding ‘no.’

“Any candidate who wants to be the leader of Chicago needs to disclose their tax returns in full, so the voters can see exactly how they made their money and what financial conflicts they would bring to the mayor’s office.

“What do these candidates have to hide? Their reluctance to release their returns speaks volumes about who they are really going to work for as mayor.”