Governor Candidate Ganahl Releases Tax Documents Showing $1.2 Million In 2021 Income

By Sara Wilson, Colorado Newsline

October 26, 2022

Heidi Ganahl, the Republican candidate for Colorado governor, released three years of tax return documents on Tuesday night and urged her opponent, incumbent Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, to do the same.

The Form 1040 filings show that Ganahl and her husband made about $1.2 million last year, $650,000 in 2020 and $366,000 in 2019.

“I have nothing to hide. Do you? Voters deserve to know the truth,” Ganahl said during a Tuesday night debate with Polis in Grand Junction.

Ganahl, who currently serves as a University of Colorado regent, and her husband own G-Que BBQ, which has four locations and a kiosk at Mile High Stadium. She also founded the doggy day care business Camp Bow Wow and sold it in 2014.

The forms show that in 2021, Ganahl and her husband made about $390,000 in capital gains, which are the revenue from sales of assets like stock. $50,000 came from wages and salaries listed on a W-2 form and the remaining approximately $760,000 is listed as other income.

Form 1040 filings do not give specific details about income sources.

The Ganahls listed about $190,000 in deductions in 2021. They owed a total of $213,581 in taxes.

Polis has not released similar tax return information, despite pressure from Ganahl and requests from journalists to do so.

“I’ve released several years of tax returns. There have been others that have been reported on. I’d be happy to discuss with my opponent which additional releases are necessary,” Polis said in a response to a question about releasing returns during a debate hosted by the Colorado Sun and CBS4 on Oct. 13.

Polis released some returns during his earlier Congressional campaigns. Neither Polis nor his Republican opponent Walker Stapleton released their tax returns during the 2018 race for governor, a break from tradition in Colorado politics.

"The tech entrepreneur, who is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, paid zero federal income tax in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and his overall income tax rate was just 8.2% from 2010 to 2018," according to reporting from ProPublica earlier this year.

A Polis campaign spokesperson did not return a request for comment by Wednesday afternoon.

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