Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who is behind Republican challenger Tom Foley in most public polls, released partial tax returns for his past four years of income on Wednesday and called upon his opponent to do the same.
The former mayor of Stamford, who beat Foley in 2010 by 6,404 votes, seems anxious to see the tax returns of his opponent who, like Mitt Romney, manages a private equity firm. In 2010, a comparison of their taxes showed Foley paid more in taxes in 2009 than Malloy and his wife, Cathy, earned that year.
“Today, Governor Malloy released four years of tax return summaries and Tom Foley should do the same,” Mark Bergman, a spokesman for the Malloy campaign, said. “If Tom Foley has nothing to hide, he should release his returns immediately. He has had weeks to prepare for a release and this should happen without delay.”
The Foley campaign said it will release his tax returns next week. In 2010, the Foley campaign released his returns about 13 days before the election.
The Malloys’ partial tax returns showed that the adjusted gross income for the couple was around $280,031 in 2010 — the year he was campaigning for the office and working at Class Green Capital as a consultant. That year they paid about 38.19 percent of their income in federal taxes and 4.8 percent in state taxes.
In 2011, after Malloy’s tax increase, the couple’s adjusted gross income dipped to $212,892. They paid about 20.7 percent of that in taxes to the federal government, while their state tax liability increased to 5.3 percent. In 2012, the Malloys had an adjusted gross income of $303,467. They paid about 25.3 percent of that to the federal government and 5.5 percent of it to the state of Connecticut. In 2013, their adjusted gross income was about $305,534. Their tax liability at both the federal and state level has remained about the same as it was in 2012.
Only four pages of the Malloy’s tax documents were released for each of the years.
Having the candidates release their tax returns prior to an election has become a common practice in Connecticut politics. Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton released his taxes in April before he ended up dropping out of the Republican gubernatorial primary and Linda McMahon, a U.S. Senate candidate in 2010 and 2012, released her tax returns as well.
In August, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel let the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Illinois know that he should release more supplemental information regarding his tax returns.
“Running for office and releasing your tax returns is like a rite of passage. You have to do it,” Emanuel told the news media.
