Westly Goes Public With Tax Records ($225.8-million income in 10 years)

LA Times ^ | 9/20/05 | Robert Salladay, Times Staff Writer

[BurbankKarl]

PALO ALTO — State Controller Steve Westly released a decade of his tax returns Monday, showing the former EBay executive received nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in income during the 10 years, mostly from selling stock in the online auction house.

Westly's release of tax returns is designed in part to pressure Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Treasurer Phil Angelides to do the same. Westly is facing Angelides in the June 2006 Democratic primary for governor, and Schwarzenegger, a Republican, announced last week that he would seek reelection.

Anyone who runs for governor needs to be open and honest with his or her finances, and we think it's important to have this out early in the campaign," said Jude Barry, campaign manager for Westly, who allowed reporters to view — but not photocopy — the tax returns.

The Schwarzenegger and Angelides campaigns said their candidates would also release their tax returns before the election. A Schwarzenegger campaign spokesman, Rob Stutzman, dismissed Westly's move as a political ploy meant to garner publicity.

He cast the controller as "someone no one knows about who is dying for attention."

[newzjunkey]

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