Politics
As the campaign for Senate Seat heats up, Cory Booker releases his tax returns
Booker has said the speaking gigs weren’t especially lucrative, because of income taxes and his penchant for charitable giving. “After Uncle Sam takes his share and after I’ve given away hundreds and hundreds of thousands, I’ve kept very little of it, if any,” he told The New York Times earlier this year.
On his tax returns, however, he only claimed about US$149,000 in charitable deductions over 15 years.
Booker made the most money speaking in 2011, netting US$406,304. That was the year after a US$100 million gift to the Newark schools from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg helped Booker leverage his stewardship of a city of 280,000 residents into a national platform.
According to Booker’s Senate disclosure forms, he has addressed, and been paid at least US$5,000 by varied organizations, including Ohio State University; the Weinstein JCC in Richmond, Virginia; the Association of Perioperative Nurses; and the Menlo Park, California, law firm Sidney Austin.
Booker’s mayoral salary has fluctuated during his seven years in office, averaging about US$140,000 a year. He also netted nearly US$690,000 in payouts from a law firm he helped found. The payouts are part of an agreement Booker made with the firm when he left it to become mayor, Griffis said.
During his five years at the firm — Trenk, DiPasquale — he earned US$45,924 in profit on top of his salary. A US$37,500 payout from the firm in 2012 was added to Booker’s financial disclosure Friday.
Booker’s campaign would not allow the tax returns to be photographed, disseminated or copied. Copies were given to reporters in a hotel conference room and were required to be given back three hours later.
