CT Gov. Lamont, Fazio release partial tax returns before November election
Less than two weeks before the election, Gov. Ned Lamont and Republican challenger Ryan Fazio have released partial tax returns showing a vast gap in wealth between the two Greenwich residents.
Lamont released four years of data, showing that he earned $17 million in 2025 and $35 million in 2024 after earning $6 million each year in 2022 and 2023. With adjusted gross income of $64.8 million over the four-year span, Lamont paid a total effective tax rate of 31% for federal and state taxes, his campaign said.
The payments included $15.46 million for federal taxes over four years, along with $4.5 million in state taxes over the same period. Lamont made charitable contributions of $1.9 million over four years.
By contrast, Fazio said that he stopped working in the private sector in order to devote his energies to running fulltime for governor. As a result, his adjusted gross income in 2025 was $50,984 as he listed his occupation as "state employee." His taxable income, after deductions, was $22,689, according to his federal returns.
Fazio's only income last year was from his state salary, and the lines on the federal tax form for interest, dividends, IRA distributions, and capital gains were all blank. After having $4,340 withheld from his paycheck last year, he qualified for a refund of $1,857, according to the records.
Over the past three years, Fazio had combined adjusted gross income of $328,904, including from when he listed his occupations as a "business analyst" for an investment company that was co-founded by his father. He had total income of $143,319 in 2024 and $134,601 in 2023.
Both candidates provided information only from the first two pages of their federal tax returns, meaning that full details were not provided on itemized deductions and capital gains from the various schedules on the federal return. Neither candidate showed the pages of their Connecticut returns.
While Fazio released two pages from the past three years, reporters seeking Lamont's returns were required to visit a conference room in a downtown New Haven building to view the returns.
"Releasing the governor's tax returns, as he did in 2018 and 2022, is about continuing to be transparent with Connecticut, as he has always been, and it is something he believes all candidates should do," campaign spokeswoman Lauren Gray said in a statement.
In 2022 and this year, Lamont released his returns in a controlled environment in a conference room with two campaign aides present. He released a one-page written summary of his income and taxes paid.
The data also showed that Lamont started receiving Social Security benefits in 2024, the year that he turned 70. He received $47,738 in Social Security in 2024 and $53,387 last year.
Lamont's charitable contributions included donations to Yale University, University of Connecticut Foundation, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, GLAAD, Girls with Impact, Norwalk-based Filling in the Blanks that helps hungry children, and 4-CT, which was created in 2020 to help the needy in Connecticut.
As a Greenwich multimillionaire for decades, Lamont is known for self-funding his campaigns for both the U.S. Senate and the governor's office. In his previous campaign in 2022, Lamont stunned political insiders by showing that his adjusted gross income in 2021 was $54 million, a sharp jump from his earlier years. That total included $52.7 million in capital gains as Lamont had sold numerous stocks.
Past releases
Calling for transparency, Lamont released three years of partial tax returns in 2022 that showed that he had earned $26 million over his first three years as governor.
The Greenwich multimillionaire did not show any income from his $150,000-per-year position as governor because he has declined to accept the state salary since taking office in January 2019.
Most of Lamont's income came from capital gains as Wall Street had shown substantial increases through the years. With adjusted gross income of $8 million in 2020, for example, $7.2 million of Lamont's total came from capital gains.
The returns showed that Lamont had adjusted gross incomes of $7.7 million in 2019, $10.14 million in 2020, and $8.0 million in 2021. He paid a combined $5.5 million in federal taxes and $1.8 million in state taxes over three years, and the campaign said the combined state and federal rate was 29%.
Annie Lamont, the governor's wife who is a multimillionaire venture capitalist, files separate tax returns and her income was not released.
The candidates are headed toward the final week in the long campaign as they spend millions on the election.
While some voters still do not know much about Fazio, Lamont has sky-high name recognition after five statewide campaigns that include his U.S. Senate campaign in 2006 and races for governor in 2010, 2018, 2022, and 2026. Lamont spent more than $60 million of his own money in his previous races, and he has turned down public financing in his gubernatorial runs. He spent $25.7 million in his re-election race in 2022 and is currently spending millions more this year as Fazio has qualified for $18 million in public funds that has allowed him to wage a widespread campaign of multiple television commercials that has sharply increased his name recognition.
