Quayle Lists $1.2 Million in Assets; Trust Income Due

Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. Dan Quayle has a net worth of roughly $1.2 million, but stands to gain income later in his life from a family trust worth an estimated $600 million, according to financial disclosure forms released by his office Friday.

Quayle’s largest personal asset is his home in McLean, Va., a wealthy suburb of Washington. Quayle bought the house for just under $129,000 in 1977 after being elected to Congress, according to his spokesman, Jeff Nesbit, but its current value is estimated at $750,000.

In 1981, Quayle built a substantial addition to the house, “to keep up with the Joneses,” Nesbit said. In the process, he took out a second mortgage, leaving current mortgage debts of $202,900. Quayle also owns about $500,000 in stock in the family-owned Central Newspapers Inc.

The disclosure forms paint the picture of a man of means but not great wealth, someone far less wealthy, for example, than Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, who made a substantial fortune in real estate and insurance before being elected to the Senate. But the forms do not take into account Quayle’s interest in the Pulliam Family Trust.

The trust, established in 1975 upon the death of Quayle’s maternal grandfather, Eugene C. Pulliam, owns 55% of the stock of Central Newspapers Inc., which, in turn, owns several newspapers, including the Arizona Republic, in Phoenix, and the Indianapolis Star and News, the largest papers in Indiana.

Quayle cannot sell any portion of the trust and will not receive his 1/12th share of its income until the deaths of both his mother and his step-grandmother. But because the family controls the trust, family members could potentially receive a variety of benefits from it.

The disclosure forms, which include 10 years of Quayle’s tax returns, show that the senator’s annual income has increased from $64,214 to $147,303 during his congressional service, in part because of steadily increasing amounts of honorariums earned from speaking to groups ranging from the Rubber Manufacturers Assn. to the Tobacco Institute.

He collected $50,600 in honorariums in the first seven months of 1988. Congressional regulations, however, allow Quayle to keep only $35,800 in honorariums--40% of his Senate salary. He is required to donate the rest to charity, taking a tax deduction for the donation.

The Quayles’ most recent tax return shows that the couple paid $25,829 in federal taxes on income of $147,303.