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PRYOR FAMILY ASSETS DWINDLE IN ‘07

By Aaron Sadler/STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Friday, May 16, 2008 10:35 PM CDT

WASHINGTON — The value of at least $600,000 in stock reported by Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., plummeted to almost nothing in 2007, according to an income statement filed by the senator last week.

The stock drop nearly wiped out the Pryor family’s assets, the document indicates. Excluding the value of his Little Rock residence, Pryor listed assets of between $3,000 and $45,000 in 2007.

A year earlier, the Pryors’ assets were between $631,000 and $1.365 million.

The stock, held by Pryor’s wife Jill, dropped to less than $2,000 last year.

In 2006, Pryor, D-Ark., reported his wife owned at least $500,000 in stock in Great Western Leasing LLC. She had at least $100,000 stock in Continental Lumber Co.

Pryor spokesman Michael Teague said the stock is part of a family trust for Jill Pryor. He blamed the dramatic dip partly on a troubled economy.

“Mark and Jill don’t handle the day-to-day dealings of that,” Teague said. “In the last disclosure period, (the stocks) had value, but they have no value now.”

Great Western and Continental Lumber are owned by Edward Harvey of Little Rock, stepfather of Jill Pryor.

Harvey owns Little Rock trucking firm Continental Express Inc.

A former president of Continental Express was indicted in April and a former chief financial officer pleaded guilty in January to stealing money from the company several years ago.

Teague said the alleged theft has “possibly some connection” to Jill Pryor’s losses.

“The downturn of the economy probably has some impact on it,” Teague added.

Income statements released yearly by members of Congress disclose figures in broad ranges that make it difficult to determine actual wealth.

Additionally, lawmakers are not required to list their own or their spouses’ income or the value of their primary residences on the reports filed each May.

Members of Congress make $169,300 annually.

The financial disclosure reports are not normally made public until June, but members of the Arkansas congressional delegation released theirs upon request this week.

Pryor’s reported assets included bank accounts valued between $2,000 and $30,000, as well as a trust for Jill Pryor valued between $1,000 and $15,000.

Pryor used proceeds from the sale of his home in a Washington suburb to purchase a home in Little Rock last year, Teague said.

Pryor’s report lists a 90-day loan of between $500,000 and $1 million for the home purchase. The loan was issued by Preston National Bank of Dallas, also owned by Edward Harvey.

Pryor listed no other liabilities.

Here are summaries of other reports filed by Arkansas lawmakers:

— Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., listed assets of between $756,000 and $1.92 million, an increase of at least $100,000 compared to last year’s report. She had no debts.

In February, she and her husband, Steve, transferred 120 acres of undeveloped land in Prairie County from joint ownership to Lincoln Lincoln Jeffries Farms LLC, owned by Steve Lincoln. The property is valued at between $100,000 and $250,000.

Their largest single assets were a checking account, a retirement account, a mutual fund and a profit-sharing plan at Genetics and IVF Institute in Fairfax, Va. Steve Lincoln, a physician, is medical director of infertility and genetics at the medical facility. Each of the four accounts were valued at between $100,000 and $250,000.

— Rep. John Boozman, R-Rogers, had between $685,000 and $1.527 million in assets, the largest single asset being a 401(k) retirement plan from Boozman-Hof Regional Eye Clinic.

Boozman, an optometrist, has a retirement fund from the clinic valued between $500,000 and $1 million. Boozman owned the clinic until he took office in 2001.

He reported as liabilities two vehicle loans, each of between $15,000 and $50,000.

— Rep. Mike Ross, D-Prescott, reaped the benefits from the sale of Ross Pharmacy Inc., the drug store he and his wife, Holly, sold last year. He reported income of between $500,000 and $1 million for the sale of the pharmacy to Super D Drug Acquisition Co. of Pine Bluff.

In addition, he reported earning between $100,202 and $1 million from Super D as part of a “noncompete” agreement with the company.

Ross sold a commercial building in Prescott to Stephen L. LaFrance Pharmacy Inc., for between $250,000 and $500,000.

His range of assets was between $782,000 and $1.76 million.

His only listed liability was a mortgage on the commercial building in Prescott, which was paid off June 1.

— Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Little Rock, provided detailed asset information. Total assets for Snyder and his wife, the Rev. Betsy Singleton, were listed at $603,968, in a variety of retirement and market funds. It marked an increase of about $42,000 from 2006.

His largest single investment was $104,383 in an individual retirement account held by the Bank of McGehee. His wife had $145,370 in a United Methodist Church pension plan.

Snyder did not list any liabilities.

— Rep. Marion Berry, D-Gillett, remained the wealthiest member of the delegation, with assets ranging from $1.87 million to $6.85 million. Most of that is in farm holdings owned by he and his wife, Carolyn, in Southeast Arkansas.

Berry owes a mortgage of between $250,000 and $500,000 on his Washington townhouse.

Also, Berry reported receiving a gift worth $412, a “Friend of the Farms” award, from Stuttgart-based Riceland, Inc.

The Center for Democracy in the Americas paid for Berry’s 6-day trip to Havana, Cuba, last May. He did not list the cost of the trip.

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