All the President's Money

While Jimmy Carter's political fortunes have been waning, his financial fortune, which is in a trust managed by Old Friend Charles Kirbo of Atlanta, has been doing just fine. Last week, in a public accounting required by the 1978 Ethics in Government Act, Carter disclosed that he has become a millionaire. With assets of $1.2 million and liabilities of $221,000, including $1,500 in unpaid bills, the President computed his net worth as of Jan. 1 at exactly $1,005,910.25. That was up from $795,357.74 a year earlier, chiefly because of the rising value of 2,000 acres of farm land that Carter owns in Sumter and Webster counties in southwestern Georgia. The President had a comfortable income last year of $267,195, including $250,000 in salary and expense money from the Government. His autobiography Why Not the Best? brought him more than $20,000 in royalties, most of which he plans to donate to unnamed charities. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter paid $89,805 in federal taxes. They ended the year with $2,554 in U.S. savings bonds, $7,855 in a checking account and $228,750 in savings accounts.

According to the statement, the Carter family peanut business, which is 62% owned by the President, ran $73,572.44 in the red last year, after losing more than $300,000 in 1977. From the thriving family farm, which is 91% owned by Carter, Kirbo made loans of $250,000 to the warehouse and $250,000 to Billy Carter. The farm land that Billy pledged as collateral was promptly assumed by the trust, apparently as a face-saving way to free him from the debt.

During the year, the President and his wife received gifts worth $100 or more from 68 donors. Included were a crossbow from Admirer Wladyslaw Adamowski of Poland, a handmade Cherokee Indian headdress from Iron Eyes Cody of Los Angeles, a 32-cassette tape recording of the Koran recited by Mahmond El Husary of Cairo's Islamic Academy, and a vermeil chain with 62 gold peanut pendants from Frank Sinatra's daughter Nancy. All of the gifts were turned over to the Government, with five exceptions; a Norman Rockwell book from the Boy Scouts of America, a limited edition of Poet James Dickey's tribute to Composer Aaron Copland, two Cherokee Indian clay pots, 600 to 800 years old, and two brass barometers, one from Kiwanis International and the other from the Naval Academy's class of 1978. In such stormy times, keeping two barometers is surely justifiable.

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