THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, September 29, 1996            TAG: 9609290032
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, D.C.                  LENGTH:   55 lines

GEPHARDT: INCOME FROM OUTER BANKS HOME WAS LEFT OFF DISCLOSURE FORM

House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt, acknowledging he omitted disclosure of rental income on a North Carolina vacation home, filed an amended financial statement.

``I am amending my report today to make clear that the property did produce gross rental income during calendar 1992, in the range of $25,000-$50,000,'' the Missouri Democrat wrote House Clerk Robin Carle on Friday. He said the information was ``inadvertently omitted.''

Gephardt also amended his 1991 form to disclose a previously unreported short-term loan on the property, although he contended House rules did not require this information because the home produced no rental income that year.

Gephardt's attorney, Robert Bauer, said in an interview that the congressman and his wife, Jane, received about $24,000 of the rental money in 1992 from the property on the Outer Banks.

The Gephardts were half-owners with another couple and split the income, Bauer said.

``We did not see the error until we were reviewing documents for the House ethics committee,'' which has been considering a complaint filed against Gephardt last February, Bauer said. The complaint involved the same property but raised different issues.

Gephardt's amended disclosure came a day after the ethics committee broadened its investigation of a college course House Speaker Newt Gingrich taught from 1993 to 1995.

Gephardt did report rental income on the property in his House disclosure statements for 1993, 1994 and 1995 - and will do so for this year, Bauer added. The property was sold last spring.

In his letter, Gephardt said his rental income, ``after applying the carrying costs of the property, resulted in a loss.''

Bauer said Gephardt sold a half-interest in the property in 1992 and reported the $30,000 to $40,000 in capital gains he received.

However, Gephardt inadvertently failed to check a box showing that the property had rental income that year, and failed to list the range of income from the rentals.

``Nobody focused on it,'' Bauer said, explaining why the error wasn't caught.

The ethics complaint against Gephardt, filed last February by Rep. Jennifer Dunn, R-Wash., raised the issue of whether his property was legally a rental home or an investment.

Dunn contended that Gephardt provided contradictory information about the use of the property on House disclosure statements and other official documents, including forms provided to the Internal Revenue Service. She also questioned whether Gephardt spent campaign money for personal use.

Following the complaint, Bauer said the forms submitted by Gephardt were truthful and he didn't turn political money to personal use. The standards for classifying property on House forms are different from those on other documents, the lawyer said. by CNB