New York State Democrats make their own push for Trump's taxes

A bill introduced on Monday in the New York State Senate would authorize the state's tax commissioner to release state tax returns to Congress upon request.

Trump is a New York resident, and the state is home to the headquarters of his family business, the Trump Organization.

Though the legislation would only enable the release of the President's state returns, the fact that much of the President's business has been conducted in New York means that such returns could be nearly as telling as his federal returns.

The measure is being sponsored by State Senator Brad Hoylman.

If passed, the bill would authorize the commissioner of the state's Department of Taxation and Finance to hand over tax returns at the request of the US House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee, the US Senate Finance Committee or the Joint Committee on Taxation, Hoylman's spokeswoman Avery Cohen told CNN. She added that the bill would stipulate that the request be "for a specified and legitimate legislative purpose."

A spokesman for New York Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told CNN Monday that the bill is under consideration.

"It is something we will be discussing as Conference to decide if and when to move forward on this legislation," said Mike Murphy, the spokesperson for Stewart-Cousins, said.

Senate Republican leadership did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Hoylman has a history of pursuing legislation to uncover Trump's financial history. Last year, Hoylman sponsored a bill that would have required any presidential or vice presidential candidate who wished to appear on the ballot in New York to file five years of federal income tax returns with the state Board of Elections.

That bill, known as the "tax returns uniformly made public" -- or TRUMP -- act, was defeated in committee.

Hoylman is currently sponsoring a similar bill which is before the state senate's elections committee.

Trump has declined to release his tax returns, the first president in over 40 years to do so. He has claimed that ongoing Internal Revenue Service audits prevent him from doing so, despite the fact that no such audit would prohibit their release.

CNN's Chris Isidore contributed to this report.

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