Democratic Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont’s gross adjusted income for three of his four years in office totaled nearly $26 million, according to tax records released Thursday in a gubernatorial rematch between two wealthy candidates.
Lamont’s earnings came mostly from interest and dividend income. The former cable television entrepreneur has not taken the state’s annual $150,000 salary for the job of governor since he was first elected in 2019.
Lamont’s reelection campaign released a summary of Lamont’s adjusted gross income, effective tax rate, total charitable contributions and state and federal taxes he paid for tax years 2018-2019. Reporters were also allowed to review redacted details of his returns. The governor, who files his taxes separately from his wife Annie, a successful venture capital consultant, did not release his 2021 returns. His campaign said he requested a filing extension from the IRS.
Both Lamont and his probable Republican opponent, businessman Bob Stefanowski, are relying on millions of dollars of their own money for their campaigns. A recent filing showed Stefanowski has so far loaned $10 million to his campaign coffers, money he could theoretically recoup. About $2.6 million has already been spent.
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Lamont, meanwhile, has so far written two checks totaling $1.15 million to his campaign which will not be reimbursed.
Jake Lewis, the communications director for Lamont’s reelection campaign, called on Stefanowski to release his returns, as well as a list of clients he retained since his last run for governor.
Stefanowski said he plans to release his and his wife’s joint tax returns, including for the 2021 tax year, but did not say when they will be made available. Stefanowski criticized the governor for not releasing more information, calling his “attempt at transparency” laughable.
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“The governor released a one-page summary of his income taxes. There is no itemization, no disclosure, and nothing to report Mrs. Lamont making millions from taxpayer-funded COVID contracts,” said Stefanowski, in an apparent reference to Annie Lamont’s venture capital firm, where she is the co-founder and managing partner.
Oak HC/FT invested in Stamford-based Sema4, a one-time COVID-19 testing partner with the state.
Lewis called Stefanowski’s comments “completely and wittingly false” and accused the Republican of trying to distract voters from his own record as a former executive of a payday loan company.
“Neither Mrs. Lamont nor the Governor has profited from Sema4 and any claim to the contrary is a lie,” Lewis said in a written statement.
According to a tax summary provided by Lamont’s campaign, the total percentage of state and federal taxes the governor paid in 2018 was 31%; 30% in 2019; and 25% in 2020. He paid more than $5.5 million in federal taxes over the three years and more than $1.8 million in state taxes.
The campaign also released a list of varied charities that received some of the $3.1 million in donations Lamont made over the three tax years.
The list includes Yale University, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, Foodshare Inc., CT Against Gun Violence, The Aspen Institute, the Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge, Boys and Girls Clubs of Hartford, the Greenwich Library, the American Museum of Natural History, the Nature Conservancy, Connecticut Legal Services, the Greenwich International Film Festival, Catholic Charities of Fairfield and 4-CT, a charitable organization Lamont helped to organize during the COVID-19 pandemic.
