Reports vague on Kansas senators’ wealth

? Just how much are Sens. Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback worth? They’re comfortable, but it’s hard to know just how comfortable from personal finance disclosure reports released Friday.

Assets and income must only be listed in broad ranges. Brownback and his wife, Mary, have a blind trust worth between $1 million and $5 million. Other investments are worth $164,017-$585,000, while Brownback’s 335-acre grain farm in Linn County, Kan., is worth $100,000-$250,000.

Brownback reported farm income of $6,045, while the trust yielded dividends and interest of $55,002-$115,000 and other investments made $1,005-$5,000.

Both Brownback and Roberts, as well as anyone with similar investments, should benefit somewhat from the recently enacted cut in taxes on capital gains and dividends paid by corporations.

Roberts, meanwhile, has assets that could be worth as little as $120,000 or as much as $890,000. They include a condominium in the Virginia suburbs outside Washington, a commercial lot in South Carolina and his Dodge City, Kan., residence.

He also reported money market accounts and mutual funds worth $117,004-$330,000; stocks in Dell Computer Corp., Microsoft Corp., AOL Time Warner Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. worth $4,004-$60,000.

Roberts’ wife, Franki, invests in the stock market and belongs to the “Meager Means Investment Club.” She reported nearly four dozen stock holdings worth $41,041-$515,000, most in either high-tech or energy-related companies.

Roberts and his wife reported no expenses-paid trips in 2002, while Brownback reported three.

Two were for speaking to Ave Maria, a conservative Catholic group begun by Dominos Pizza founder Tom Monaghan, in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Sept. 27, and Milwaukee on Oct. 15. He traveled to Sea Island, Ga., to speak about human cloning to a Christian conservative group called The Awakening, which paid his food and lodging.