Tax Deadline: What Is Ashley Kalus Hiding?
Kalus has already failed to properly disclose significant income in her candidate ethics filings and has broken her promise to voters to release her tax returns
PROVIDENCE – Today is the deadline to file tax returns for those who requested an extension, including Republican nominee Ashley Kalus. Last week, Governor Dan McKee upheld his commitment to publicly release his returns, like he has done in recent years. Following McKee’s disclosure, Kalus announced that she was breaking her promise to release her tax returns, refusing to uphold her commitment from April this year.
“Today is Ashley Kalus’ deadline to file her tax returns and she should do the right thing, uphold her promise to voters, and release them publicly. It should raise serious alarm for voters that Ashley Kalus is taking a page right out of Donald Trump’s playbook in denying voters the transparency they deserve and have come to expect from those running for Governor,” said Brexton Isaacs, Campaign Manager for Governor McKee’s campaign. “Ashley Kalus has no excuse to break her promise, she could very easily put them out any time today. The fact is, she wants to hide from voters’ legitimate questions about her background and her financial interests — especially given that she already failed to properly disclose significant income in her candidate ethics filings. The people of Rhode Island know very little about Ashley Kalus as she has dodged questions on her positions on key issues and there are even serious questions about what state she calls home.”
Last week, the Providence Journal’s Kathy Gregg and WPRI’s Ted Nesi noted that Ashley Kalus went back on her promise to release her taxes. Kalus wouldn’t even share with Gregg which state she paid taxes in for 2021.
“If Ashley Kalus can’t even release her tax returns — a standard of those running for governor — what else is she hiding?” added Isaacs.
BACKGROUND
Providence Journal: Gov. McKee releases state and federal tax returns. Will opponent Kalus do the same? (10/11/22)
Gov. Dan McKee on Tuesday voluntarily made public his state and federal tax returns, and he called on his Republican challenger Ashley Kalus to do the same.
…
When asked why McKee was willing to make his own family’s returns public, spokeswoman Andrea Palagi said: “The Governor believes it’s in the public’s interest to release this information.”
The McKees’ returns reveal little new about their life.
But Kalus is a relatively new arrival to Rhode Island.
Providence Journal: Kalus said she would release her tax returns earlier this year (10/12/22)
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?
WPRI: Gov hopeful Ashley Kalus got tax break for Illinois homeowners after buying RI house (09/21/22)
Republican gubernatorial nominee Ashley Kalus acknowledged Wednesday her family continued to receive a homestead exemption on a house in Illinois even after she bought a home in Newport last year, saying her husband continued to live out of state until recently.
Providence Journal: GOP’s Ashley Kalus explains a tax break in one state, a voter registration in another (09/26/22)
In February 2017, a Florida weekly ran a feature story about the plastic surgeon married to Rhode Island’s current GOP candidate for governor, Ashley Kalus.
Explaining how they landed in Florida, it said: “Dr. Jeffrey Weinzweig and his wife, Ashley, spent a weekend in the Keys and that was enough to move their family of three young boys to Key West.”
That five-year-old article — in the Upper Keys Weekly — has come back to haunt Kalus amid questions about a tax break reserved for residents that she and her husband enjoyed for most of the last decade on their house in Illinois, even when they were both registered to vote in Florida.
WPRI: Gov hopeful Kalus signed doc designating RI house her ‘second home’ (09/29/22)
Republican gubernatorial candidate Ashley Kalus signed a mortgage document in February attesting that the house she owns in Newport is a second home rather than her primary residence, Target 12 has learned.
Newport land records show Kalus signed the “Second Home Rider” on Feb. 25, as part of paperwork that she and her husband, Jeffrey Weinzweig, filed when they took out a $615,000 mortgage on the Newport house. They had bought the property the prior year for $770,000.
The document further complicates the issue of Kalus’s ties to Rhode Island, a topic that has dogged her from the start of her campaign. She lived in Illinois and Florida prior to buying the house in Newport and cast her vote in the 2020 election from her Florida address, before registering to vote in Rhode Island early this year.
