Gavin Newsom’s purported “release” of his long-anticipated tax returns has been criticized as a mockery of transparency, as the governor discreetly provided the documents to selected news organizations.
Questions rise over Newsom’s wealth
Despite his commitment to disclose four years of tax records, The California Post has uncovered that the governor allowed only a limited number of preferred media outlets to examine 718 pages of documents, while prohibiting them from making any copies.
Newsom, who is presently under a potential corruption investigation by the FBI alongside his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, was absent from the meticulously organized private media event held on Thursday in Sacramento, where he did not address any questions.
Also Read: Gavin Newsom breaks silence on affair scandal as Ruby Rippey makes new revelation in explosive detail
Media organizations such as The New York Times and Politico, whose journalists were instructed to use only pen and paper for note-taking on the documents, consented to publish their findings on Friday morning.
Speaking to The Post, US Rep. Kevin Kiley, a former state legislator, said, “If the governor is truly committed to transparency, it makes little sense to pick and choose who that transparency extends to.”
US Representative James Gallagher stated to The Post that Newsom’s transparency resembles his approach to homelessness — it significantly falls short of expectations.
“He talks big about things abut never actually delivers. This is another instance of that — only allowing select people and only pen and paper. This isn’t real transparency. There are still a lot of questions where Gavin’s money comes from.”
Scott Meyers, a Republican candidate for Congress in California’s 30th Congressional District, told The Post: If you wish for voters to have confidence in your management of their tax dollars, you ought to embrace such scrutiny.
Records obtained by select media outlets showed that Newsom and his spouse compensated household staff nearly $200,000 and deducted $45,000 for Armani clothing, while earning between $1.7 million and $2 million annually from 2022 to 2024.
Newsom, who attempted to portray himself as the underdog in his recent memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry,” earned $70,000 in author income in 2023 and an additional $75,000 in 2024.
In 2021, the couple declared $3.5 million in taxable income, largely due to $1 million gained from the sale of their upscale home in Marin County.
Details
The backlash comes days after Ruby Rippey, a former aide to Newsom, publicly disclosed the complete details of their affair, which occurred over twenty years ago during Newsom’s tenure as the mayor of San Francisco.
“This appears to be another Newsom story where the factual details are very different from the self-proclaimed headline.”
According to the Associated Press, Newsom’s income remained fairly stable from 2021 to 2024.
His annual gubernatorial salary, approximately $200,000 as reported in tax filings and which has since increased to $246,000, constituted only a small portion of the family’s total earnings. The majority of their income was derived from winery, restaurant, and hospitality ventures that he placed into a blind trust upon assuming office. The tax returns reportedly do not specify which individual businesses produced profits or incurred losses.
