Dayton releases tax return, but not net worth
Tuesday, July 06, 2010 at 2:33 pm
- 4 Comments
Mark Dayton. MnIndy file photo
DFL gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton fulfilled a recent campaign pledge and released his 2009 tax return forms Tuesday. Dayton’s income was $172,475 for the year, with the form listing $27,383 in charitable contributions.
The disclosure gives little new transparency to Dayton’s financial status. The former U.S. senator earned the majority of his wealth from his family, which created the Target chain of stores, so the $172,475 Dayton earned last year is just a portion of his personal wealth. He is running a self-funded campaign that has already spent more than $354,000 airing television commercials.
The majority of Dayton’s income came through capital gains and dividends from his family’s trust. Dayton is not involved with the investment strategy of the family trust, so little information on the candidate can be gained by reviewing the companies listed.
Dayton’s tax forms reveal a few interesting anecdotes — such as the selling of Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec paintings to help finance his campaign — but provided almost no insight to his net worth. In his last personal finance filing as a senator in 2006, Dayton listed a net worth totaling between $3,225,421 to $12,031,000.
Only one other gubernatorial candidate — DFL endorsed Margaret Anderson Kelliher — has matched Dayton’s pledge to release tax records with all other candidates so far refusing to publicly disclose their forms.
4 Comments
Comment posted July 6, 2010 @ 11:02 pm
He is independently wealthy. One of the “haves”.
Target/Dayton’s/Macy’s
If he were a republican trampling the have-nots and the have-a-bits, then I would care how deep into the upper class he is.
As he is against all that, I am not concerned exactly how big his economic footprint is – it’s not looming over me.
Comment posted July 7, 2010 @ 10:46 am
Zera Lee, he’s “independently wealthy,” but since he didn’t actually earn any of that wealth, or even his annual income, since it comes from a trust fund he doesn’t even control, his call for “taxing the rich” is more than a bit disingenuous.
If he really cared so much about the “have-nots” Zera Lee he’d give it all away, don’t you think? I mean, look at all the Hollywood limousine liberals who have tens of millions by simply singing a song and they want me to pay more of my earnings in taxes but at least they’ve given away all their wealth before thay ask that of me. Oh wait …
Comment posted July 7, 2010 @ 10:44 pm
Don’t worry, Dennis. Your reputation for biased anti-intellectualism is still intact.
Comment posted July 17, 2010 @ 1:25 pm
As, apparently, is your reputation for feeble ad hominem attacks, Zera. You did nothing to refute his point. If you actually thought about his proposed tax increases you’d realize that they have little impact on the supposed wealthy that he claims and instead are targeted solidly at the upper middle class that actually has to earn their money as opposed to inherit it. Oh, and for the record this is why I support a significant inheritance tax. Every generation should have to prove itself and earn its keep.
Dayton can claim the high ground when he renounces his family trust, mortgages his house and gives the money to charity, and has to support himself with his own labor.
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