JEFFERSON CITY - The Missouri Republican Party today again called on Claire McCaskill to stop concealing her finances from the public and release her tax returns and those of her millionaire developer husband Joseph Shepard who did not pay a penny of taxes in 1995.

With a family fortune of between $13 million and $30 million amassed though taxpayer-financed tax credits, hundreds of government subsidized real estate partnerships and an offshore tax shelter in Bermuda, McCaskill and Shepard have arrogantly refused to release their tax returns even though Sen. Jim Talent and his wife Brenda have released theirs.

McCaskill’s failure to publicly release her family’s tax returns raises serious questions about what the documents will show given a Missouri Republican Party complaint that McCaskill has failed to disclose to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics statutorily required information about the sources, value, liabilities and actual income of her family’s multi-million-dollar fortune.

By concealing the documents, McCaskill is also able to avoid exposing the conflict of interest that exists between her current audit of the Missouri Housing Development Commission and activity exceeding $10 million in MHDC financing that helped boost their family’s business interests.

“What is Claire McCaskill trying to hide from Missourians whose hard-earned tax dollars were used to build the McCaskill family fortune? What is in those tax returns that Claire McCaskill and Joseph Shepard don’t want the public to see? Claire McCaskill should release the tax returns now. Anything less is unacceptable,” said Paul Sloca, communications director for the Missouri Republican Party. “Claire McCaskill’s refusal to shine light on her taxpayer funded family fortune is an insult to Missourians and begs the question: What is Claire McCaskill hiding? She already detailed her desire to mislead Missourians when she vulgarly exclaimed to a New York reporter ‘oh damn, I didn’t want you to know I was a rich lady’– she obviously has a lot to hide.”