By Jennifer Peltz

Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Scandal-lashed former Gov. Eliot Spitzer released some of his tax returns Wednesday, after taking heat for declining to disclose them as he runs for the city's top financial office.

The tax forms, plus a required financial disclosure form he filed Wednesday, flesh out a picture of the lucrative careers Spitzer has nurtured in television and real estate since he resigned the governorship amid a prostitution scandal in 2008.

The Democrat's campaign had disclosed two years of his multimillion-dollar income and tax totals on Tuesday, showing he and his wife made more than $8 million in the last two years.

But the campaign had said the tax forms were off-limits because they had private information about business partnerships. Spitzer works for the real estate business his father founded, and the former governor owns part of family holdings that include Fifth Avenue apartment buildings.

City politicians don't have to show the public their tax returns, but many do in the name of transparency.

Spitzer released his while he was governor and attorney general, showing his considerable income from family properties at the time. And he blasted Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney for not releasing his tax returns last year, in light of Romney's remark that 47 percent of Americans don't pay income tax and "are dependent on government."

His current Democratic rival, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, released his returns Tuesday and urged Spitzer to do so. Two Stringer supporters, city Councilman Brad Lander and State Sen. Gustavo Rivera, convened a conference call with reporters Wednesday to press the issue, noting that Spitzer had trumpeted ethics and accountability while in state government.