Gov. Ned Lamont isn’t taking a salary from the state, but it’s clear from his 2021 taxes that he doesn’t need to. The tax return released by his campaign today shows he made $54 million last year. That’s more than double what he made over the previous three years.
His campaign said the money came from capital gains which are managed through a blind trust while he serves as governor.
“Today, Gov. Ned Lamont is continuing his record of being transparent with Connecticut residents, something he believes all candidates should do. He has gone above and beyond what is required – placing his assets in a blind trust and reporting his holdings each year to the state ethics office,” Jake Lewis, communications director for Lamont’s campaign, said.
The number seems to dwarf the nearly $36 million his Republican opponent Bob Stefanowski and his wife, Amy, made over the past three years. The tax information, Stefanowski released in September shows that the pair earned $7.3 million in 2019, $15.2 million in 2020, and just over $13.1 million in 2021. Over the three-year period, they paid about $12.5 million in federal taxes.
That’s about the same amount as Lamont paid in just one tax year.
Lamont’s return shows he paid $12.8 million in federal taxes, $3.7 million in state taxes, and gave $1.6 million to charities, including 4-CT, the nonprofit that helped distribute $14 million in money to individuals like undocumented immigrants who didn’t qualify for federal funding at the height of the pandemic.
The campaign did not say how much of the $1.6 million from to 4-CT, which handed out about $14 million in total in 2020.
The other organizations Lamont gave money to includes the Boy Scouts of America, Connecticut Against Gun Violence (CAGV), United Way, Yale University, The Aspen Institute, Council on Foreign Relations, Foote School Association, North Haven Foundation, Oakwood Soccer Club, Inc., School Administrative District #7, Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, We Are All Human Foundation, and the Focus Center for Autism, Inc.
Lamont files his taxes separately from his wife Ann Huntress Lamont, which has been a point of contention between him and Stefanowski. Lamont’s wife is founder and managing partner at Oak HC/FT, an early investor in Sema4, one of the companies the state contracted with to do testing, early in the pandemic. The Lamonts have maintained they had no input in awarding the contract, which has since ended.
“Governor Lamont being super rich isn’t a problem, but his failure to provide any transparency around his family’s wealth is. When the governor’s administration gave his wife’s company a $26 million no-bid, taxpayer-funded contract he waived all rights to privacy,” Stefanowski said in an emailed statement Friday.
“He should be embarrassed by this stunning lack of disclosure. The hard-working residents of Connecticut are struggling to keep food on the table, fill their gas tanks, and heat their homes as winter approaches, yet the Governor says he cut your taxes, our utility rates are low, and we have our ‘mojo’ back. Governor Lamont is out-of-touch,” Stefanowski added.
Lamont released three years of taxes this past April.
Reporters were allowed to view the summary of the tax filings for 2018, 2019, and 2020 for twenty minutes. They were not given access to the full tax returns, including the various schedules which would have shown the gains and losses in capital gains.
The same rules applied to Friday’s release of his 2021 taxes. Only the summary was provided.
Lamont and Stefanowski are largely self-funding their campaigns. Records show that Lamont has spent about $14.8 million and Stefanowski has spent $9.2 million on this year’s rematch, putting them on pace to spend almost double what they did in 2018.
