Cory Booker gave $460K to charity over 10 years, tax returns show
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., released 10 years of tax returns on Wednesday, which show that the lawmaker and 2020 hopeful gave $460,000 to charity between 2009 and 2018.
As a U.S. senator, Booker receives a salary of $174,000 a year. In 2018, he reported $152,715 in income and paid $29,446 in federal taxes. That same tax year, he gave $24,000 to charity. In 2017, the senator raked in more income than in 2018 — $429, 983 — in addition to his Senate salary thanks to $275,250 in income from "Rents, Royalties, Patents, and Copyrights." He paid $34,298 in taxes that year.
Booker released a book in 2009 titled "United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good."
Booker now joins several other 2020 candidates who have publicly released tax returns public. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., released his long-awaited returns earlier this month. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., also released 15 years of returns. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., added 2018 to the 10 years of returns she released last August. In March, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., was the first candidate to release her 2018 returns, publishing 12 years total, and started an online petition that calls on every candidate to disclose their taxes. Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, and his wife released 10 years of tax returns in mid-April.
Beto and his wife reported $370,412 in income in 2017, the most recent year available, and listed $1,166 in charitable giving, which is one-third of 1 percent. Harris and her husband made $1.9 million last year, according to her returns, and gave $27,000 to charity. Warren and her husband reported $906,000 in income and reported donating $50,000 to charity in 2018.
