Bentsen Discloses Tax, Income Figures : Averaged $264,453 Payments, $772,181 Earning for 5 Years

Democratic vice presidential nominee Lloyd Bentsen’s gross income averaged $772,181 over the last five years and he paid an average of $264,453 in federal taxes during the same period, according to financial records released today by the Texas senator.

Bentsen, 67, also made public a blind trust and released a report from his doctor saying he was “in excellent health.”

Bentsen’s income tax returns for the years 1983 through 1987 show that he earned a high of $1,020,607 in 1983 and a low of $597,906 in 1984. He paid his highest taxes during the period of $403,932 in 1983 and a low of $155,329 the following year.

$21,381 for Charity

The three-term senator also distributed an average of $21,381 in charitable contributions during those five years.

In a letter to Sen. Howell Heflin (D-Ala.), chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, Bentsen said he was opening the blind trust because the Office of Government Ethics must review it to see whether the trust arrangement complies with federal law now that he is a candidate for vice president.

“I have decided to open my trust so that not only the office but anyone who cares to may learn of my holdings. I enclose a public report of the list of assets to be distributed, together with the category value of each asset,” Bentsen said.

Bentsen did not provide figures of his exact net worth, but a source close to Bentsen, speaking only on condition of anonymity, said the senator would not argue with other estimates that his net worth exceeds $10 million.

Insurance, Finance Companies

After being a congressman from 1949 to 1956, Bentsen returned to Houston and founded an insurance company that later became a financial holding company.

Bentsen’s records show gross earnings of $604,587 and taxes of $253,098 in 1985, earnings of $718,237 and taxes of $298,495 in 1986 and gross earnings of $919,566 and taxes of $211,411 in 1987.

The senator’s doctor, Antonio M. Gotto Jr. of Houston, examined Bentsen in April and said results were “completely normal with the exception of a slight elevation of systolic blood pressure to 148 and two small lesions on the skin.”

A follow-up examination found Bentsen’s blood pressure was normal and the skin lesions had disappeared.

High Cholesterol

Gotto told Bentsen in a letter released as part of the report that he had a cholesterol count of 245.

In October, government guidelines said that cholesterol counts of 245 milligrams per decaliter are considered “high risk.”

Gotto said in the letter that after Bentsen used a low dose of Lovastatin, a drug to lower cholesterol, for about one month, the cholesterol level was reduced to 200, a level the government guidelines say is desirable.

“I am very pleased with this response to the medication, as well as with the overall state of your health,” Gotto wrote.