Source: Dia Dipasupil / Getty
Eric Adams tenure as the Mayor of New York City is only a few months old but already the man’s ways and actions has his him looking very funny in the light.
After making some controversial decisions including participating in nepotism and rubbing elbows with the rich and famous, now Eric Adams is going the Trumpian route and is seemingly hiding his taxes from the public. According to Politico, Adams says he won’t commit to releasing his tax returns, bucking decades of customs but danced around the possibility of one day maybe making his returns public if need be.
“I will comply with whatever rules are in place, you know we do our disclosure also. I think that’s sometime in May,” Adams said at a press briefing, likely referring to a financial disclosure to the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board. “Whatever rules are in place to ensure transparency for those who are in public office, I am going to comply 100 percent.”
When a reporter asked Adams if they could get a firm commitment that he’ll release his filings at some point in the coming future, the mayor simply said “No, you can’t.”
Technically the city conflicts board really only requires local elected officials, candidates and policy makers to publicly state their income, assets and liabilities but doesn’t actually require disclosure of their tax returns. It’s basically up to the office holder whether or not they want the public to know what their returns are looking like and Adams doesn’t seem like he wants his constituents to know too much about his personal finances.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Adams had to refile his taxes after a Politico reporter found that he had failed to disclose rental income on his returns.
Adams had left off any mention of rental income on his 2017, 2018 and 2019 tax returns. He owns a multi-unit attached row house in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, and from 2017 through 2019, reported collecting up to $50,000 a year in rent on the property, according to financial disclosures on file with the Conflicts of Interest Board. But he made no mention of that to the IRS.
Knowing that reporters out there will connect some missing dots must surely weigh on his decision to make his taxes public. That being said, what could the Mayor of New York City be hiding? Would his constituents even care? Guess we may never know.
Eric Adams lowkey looking like one of the most blatantly Trumpian politicians in the game and he’s a Democrat. Just sayin.’
