Considered one of the wealthiest officeholders in the nation, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger paid nearly $3 million in combined federal and state income taxes from earnings in 2003, the governor's office announced Wednesday.
Schwarzenegger, who is not accepting his state salary of $175,000, has an estimated net worth of close to $100 million and placed all of his assets into a blind trust shortly after his election last October.
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Schwarzenegger paid $2,048,037 in federal income taxes and $843,590 in state income taxes for 2003.
In 2002, Schwarzenegger reported $6,622,505 in federal income taxes and $2,167,361 in state income taxes with $974,407 in charitable contributions.
No earnings figure for him were released for either year nor any further details about his income or charitable giving.
The reason for the blackout, said Rob Stutzman, communications director for the governor, is to protect the integrity of the blind trust.
The trust is overseen by Schwarzenegger's longtime investment adviser, Paul Wachter. As trustee, Wachter has the authority to buy and sell Schwarzenegger's assets but is prevented by the tenants of the trust from disclosing to the governor any information about the holdings.
Any further release of information from Schwarzenegger's tax return would compromise the blind trust, Stutzman said.
First lady Maria Shriver did not release her tax information.
Until the creation of the trust, Schwarzenegger's reported holdings included dozens of blue chip stocks such as Starbucks, Wal-Mart, IBM and Microsoft. The governor also reported ownership in residential and commercial real estate projects and shares in investment partnerships.
Records show that Schwarzenegger earned $26.1 million in 2001 and $31.1 million in 2000.
In 2001, he paid $9.3 million in federal and state income taxes and gave $4.1 million to charity, including the donation of a $2 million house in Santa Monica to the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles.
In 2000, Schwarzenegger paid state and federal taxes of $10.7 million. He donated 2,500 shares of Starbucks Corp., worth about $110,000, to Habitat for Humanity; as well as a 1934 Bentley and 1996 Humvee to the Inner-City Games Foundation, an urban youth group he co-founded.
The numbers stand in sharp contrast to the tax filings of former Gov. Gray Davis. In 2002, his last full year in office, Davis and his wife paid $50,121 in taxes on an adjusted gross income of $185,357.
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