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January 03, 2011
Braun won't release tax returns 'because I don't want to'
Posted by Jeff Coen at 12:17 p.m.; updated at 2:52 p.m.
Mayoral candidate Carol Moseley Braun today said she won't make her tax returns public before next month's election.
"Because I don't want to," Braun said when asked why she wouldn't be releasing them in the time before the Feb. 22 election.
Fellow candidates Rahm Emanuel and Gery Chico already have released their tax returns. You can read about Emanuel's by clicking here and Chico's clicking here. City Clerk Miguel del Valle, a mayoral candidate, also has released his returns. You can read about them by clicking here.
Braun has said she won't release her returns unless she makes it to the April 5 runoff election. Such an election won't happen unless none of the candidates score 50 percent plus one on Feb. 22.
Chico criticized Braun, saying voters are entitled to see her tax returns.
"I think it's about transparency," Chico said, telling reporters he didn't know of her choice. "Give it out....There's nothing to hide. You pay your taxes, you pay your bills, you give it out."
Braun made the statement at a conclusion of a news conference she called on the controversial deal that turned over Chicago's parking meter deal to a private group in return for a one-time payout.
Braun said she would do everything she could to have the deal cancelled and renegotiated if she becomes the city's chief executive. She said more information was needed when the contract was inked.
"We might not have been saddled with such a rotten deal," she said, adding Chicago was "snookered."
Reporters asked how that would work, since the city signed its rights away after hiring its own adviser. "You sue them all," she said.
Chico called his own news conference to accuse Braun of perpetuating "hysteria" over the meter deal and offering an unrealistic remedy.
Any breaking of the deal automatically would put the citizens of Chicago on the hook for its $1.2 billion cost, he said. Chico agreed the deal was a fiasco, he said, but the situation would be worsened by a doomed, expensive court fight.The parking meter issue has been a popular target for mayoral candidates, but experts say little can be done given that the city already has spent nearly all of the $1.1 billion it got from leasing the meters.
Posted at 12:18:16 PM in 2011 Chicago election, 2011 Chicago mayor's race
Comments
She is just as arrogant as she was as a senator. She's the female Tombstone Burris.
Posted by: Rick7890 | January 03, 2011 at 03:07 PM
Yeah...she's the most qualified. *snicker* What are you hiding, Carol? If she cannot be this forthcoming now, wonder what she will be like if she got in office? Citizens deserve transparency especially since we got shafted enough already.
Posted by: Rosie | January 03, 2011 at 02:59 PM
Ridiculous! And she wants to be Mayor! I don't think so!
Posted by: Mimi | January 03, 2011 at 02:51 PM
Well, I don't want to vote for her.
Posted by: Cheryl | January 03, 2011 at 02:49 PM
This denial is a legitimate reason why the good citizens of the City of Chicago shouldn't have to vote for you! You pop in on the scene from out of nowhere, kick Danny Davis to the curb , have Jesse at your side whispering in your ear and this all somehow makes you qualified? NOT! You couldn't get reelected to Congress. Girl friend, take your tired act elsewhere!
You can't always get what YOU want!
Posted by: Dave | January 03, 2011 at 02:46 PM
Plus ca change, plus la meme
life goes on
Posted by: terry | January 03, 2011 at 02:39 PM
Gee, Carol, If I was ever suspected of using campaign funds to buy jewelry and to pay for vacations to Hawaii with my special friend, or to take trips to Nigeria, I probably wouldn't be releasing my personal tax returns either.
Posted by: Carl | January 03, 2011 at 02:29 PM
Oops - should have proof read. I meant Miguel Del Valle not Chico.
Posted by: Dave Hutton | January 03, 2011 at 02:29 PM
Then she obviously has something to hide. She needs to get off her high horse and do what it takes to show she is serious about the possibilty, very slim as it is about being Mayor.
Posted by: Citygirl | January 03, 2011 at 02:27 PM
And we get our first taste of what it would be like to have CMB as our Mayor.
NEXT!
Posted by: Mark | January 03, 2011 at 02:27 PM
I agree 100% the parking meter deal was idiotic. More of the same from the current regime we have been forced to live with for the past 20+ years. But what does C.M.B think she can do about it?
"You sue them all" ????? Does that include Daley and the City Council? Or is she going to follow the Obama game plan and rip up legally binding contracts to suit his own political needs?
With candidates like this everybody in Chicago should be very scared. I never thought I'd say this - but Chico is looking more and more like the best option we have. He doesn't seem to be part of the corrupt regime like Rahm nor is he completely out of touch with reality like Braun.
Posted by: Dave Hutton | January 03, 2011 at 02:24 PM
I don't want to vote for you.
Posted by: rhino | January 03, 2011 at 02:15 PM
This is the type of complete lack of anything even coming close to resembling competency that Carol Moseley Braun demonstrated during her one term as U.S. Senator.
The fact that she refuses to release her tax returns, strictly on the basis that she doesn't want to, should send up a whole forest of red flags all over the landscape.
If anything, Carol Moseley Braun has now proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that she is totally unqualified to serve as Mayor of Chicago, much less 3rd Grade Level Meter Maid of Chicago.
Posted by: CGull | January 03, 2011 at 02:12 PM
Two front-running candidates release their returns, you won't. Carol...you're only hurting what little chance you have of winning (and that's pretty little).
Posted by: bigdog0319 | January 03, 2011 at 02:06 PM
What the heck is she HIDING???
Posted by: Ralphie | January 03, 2011 at 02:03 PM
One word: "LOL!"
Posted by: joa a | January 03, 2011 at 02:02 PM
Is anyone surprised?
Posted by: Joy Rogers | January 03, 2011 at 02:01 PM
What a coincidence Ms. Braun, I won't vote for you because I don't want to.
Posted by: Pablo | January 03, 2011 at 02:01 PM
So she has played another card, and it once again proves Braun is not playing with a full deck. "Reporters asked how that would work, since the city signed its rights away after hiring its own adviser. "You sue them all," she said." A good indicator as to how she may solve problems for the City. Not a good problem solver. Our next Mayor needs to be smarter than the average bear, "sue them all" is not what I would expect to hear from an effective leader.
Posted by: Giacomo | January 03, 2011 at 01:56 PM
Wonder why?
1. Moseley Braun was the subject of a 1993 Federal Elections Commission investigation over $249,000 in unaccounted-for campaign funds.
2. She helped her mother hide assets so that her mother could recieve Medicare benefits.
That's why she might not want to.
Posted by: md_chgo | January 03, 2011 at 01:56 PM
I wont vote for you because I don't want to!
Posted by: chicagomicky | January 03, 2011 at 01:50 PM
Another democrat with something to hide. But that's OK, all the dems running are crooked as a dog's hind leg. That's how the Chicago sheeple love them.
Posted by: Larry | January 03, 2011 at 01:50 PM
This is nauseating.
Posted by: Charlotte | January 03, 2011 at 01:48 PM
Is she trying to hide *more* embarrassing overseas business activities?
Posted by: Chris | January 03, 2011 at 01:46 PM
Braun is so arrogant and she knows nothing about contracts. She would spend millions in attorneys fees (probably some friends) to try to void this contract and then give back the money which the city doesn't have. Unbelievable!
Posted by: Kathleen1325 | January 03, 2011 at 01:42 PM
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Clout St: Braun won't release tax returns 'because I don't want to'
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