Gov. Gavin Newsom of California released four years of federal tax returns this week to carefully selected news outlets — a disclosure which one news outlet slammed as “sneaky” and an “insult to transparency.”
The release was prompted “in part by a federal investigation into the finances of his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom,” aides told the New York Times, one of the few publications tapped to view and report on the returns.
That’s the rub, critics said.
The California Post reported Saturday that the governor “only permitted a small group of favored media outlets to pore over 718 pages of documents while forbidding them from making copies,” a move it headlined as “sneaky” and the process an “insult to transparency.”
The Post, which had lobbied for their release, was not one of the chosen few.
In 2024, the most recent year released, the Newsoms reported a taxable income of about $1.39 million, $1 million of that from investments, according to the Times’ reporting on Friday.
The governor’s taxable wages from his salary as governor were about $192,000. According to that report “his wife’s wages were about $148,000.”
Until this week, Newsom and his wife have not released returns since he ran for reelection in 2022, though when he was first elected governor he promised to release them annually–but failed to do so, the Times noted.
His office told the newspaper that the new release was in response to “right-wing claims” that the couple enriched themselves during his time in office.
The Post and others, however, took umbrage at the methodology of the disclosure. The paper reported the release was made at a “carefully managed private media event Thursday in Sacramento.”
“Media outlets including the New York Times and Politico, whose reporters were ordered to use only a pen and paper to take notes on the documents, agreed to publish their findings Friday morning,” the Post wrote in its Saturday edition.
The Times confirmed that restricted note-taking scenario as well.
The Post published comments from two critical congressmen from the Golden State.
“If the governor is truly committed to transparency, it makes little sense to pick and choose who that transparency extends to,” Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA), a former state legislator, told the tabloid. “This appears to be another Newsom story where the factual details are very different from the self-proclaimed headline.”
Rep. James Gallagher (R-CA) also weighed in, saying, “Newsom’s transparency is a lot like his homelessness policy — it leaves a lot to be desired.”
He continued, “He talks big about things but 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.”
According to the Times:
The returns, which were released for 2021 through 2024, show that Mr. Newsom’s finances have been fairly stable over the years, except in 2021, when the family’s income received a $1 million boost after they sold a multimillion-dollar home. Mr. Newsom has filed for an extension to file his 2025 return, which is due in October.
Tax returns often do not indicate how much a person’s wealth has grown through investments and business holdings. Many asset classes grew substantially in value between 2021 and 2024, yet the Newsoms’ income remained roughly the same. The governor and his wife both have significant investments in blind trusts, and only the income from those investments was reflected in the tax returns.
The couple, the Times reported, earned the bulk of their joint income from the governor’s investment in the wine and hospitality industry, held in a blind trust. His wife’s income stemmed from nonprofits with which she is associated.
The governor, who published his memoir Young Man in a Hurry, also earned $70,000 as an author in 2023 and $75,000 in $2024, presumably as advances for that book or royalties for a children’s book he also wrote.
Over the period released, the couple’s donations to charity ranged from a low of $40,000 in 2021 to a high of $67,000 in 2023. The names of organizations receiving cash were withheld, according to the Times, while recipients of non-cash donations were included.
One such donation was “Armani business wear” to a justice nonprofit in Oakland, the clothing costing them $45,000 but listed at a “thrift shop value” of only $4900. Other donations like toys and furniture went to Goodwill Industries.
The couple also paid additional taxes for domestic staff members and babysitters, reportedly paying nearly $200,000 in wages for household employees in 2024.
The returns came especially into focus after the governor disclosed recently that he and his wife are subjects of a federal investigation, which he claims is politically motivated.
Newsom in the past has accused the administration of weaponizing the Justice Department against him because he is a likely contender in the 2028 presidential election.
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