Dayton made $671,724 last year

Gov. Mark Dayton made $671,724 last year from his investments, according to the governor's newly filed tax returns.

That's up significantly from the year before, when he netted $172,475.

Dayton released his tax returns Tuesday as he pushes a proposal in the Legislature to raise taxes for Minnesota's highest earners to help erase the state's $5 billion projected deficit. Under the plan, the state would create new, top tax bracket for single filers with a taxable income of more than $85,000 and couples with taxable income of more than $150,000 a year. The governor's tax returns put him squarely in that category.

Dayton paid $50,701 in state taxes and $99,690 in federal taxes, according to his tax filing.

The department store heir's largest source of revenue came from the sale of 8,431 shares of Target Corp. stock, worth $407,665. The shares were purchased in August, 1930, about 17 years before Dayton was born. He also sold shares of Johnson & Johnson, General Electric and Citigroup and earned dividends and interest on other investments.

The governor donated $8,150 to charitable causes, including the local chapter of Planned Parenthood, the Summit Academy and Esalen Institute, a spiritual retreat in Big Sur, Calif.

The governor's tax filing does not account for the $3.9 million he loaned his successful gubernatorial campaign.

"I doubt it," Dayton said Tuesday.

Dayton's tax filings also provided little insight into his personal fortune. In 2000, he pegged his assets at less than $22 million.

Dayton has said that his lifetime of public service -- including a term in the U.S. Senate in which he did not take a salary -- has sharply eroded his net worth.

After winning the gubernatorial race, Dayton said this time he would take a salary "out of the financial necessity to do so."