Sen. Bernie Sanders with two staffers at Hero’s Welcome in North Hero. Photo taken on the day Sanders closed on the purchase of his lakefront home. Credit: Gabby Timms

Thanks in large part to his successful foray into authorship, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) made more than $1 million in 2016. That’s according to his latest U.S. Senate financial disclosure, which he filed Sunday after receiving a 20-day extension.

The most notable source of income: book royalties. Sanders received a $795,000 advance for his best-selling book, Our Revolution. He got another $63,750 for his forthcoming Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution, a book aimed at young readers coauthored with Kate Waters. And he took in $6,735 in royalties for his 1997 memoir Outsider in the House.

That’s more than $865,000 for peddling his working-class ideas. Not bad.

Then there’s the $2,521 Sanders earned last year in royalties for his 1987 spoken-word folk album, We Shall Overcome.

Senate rules do not require members to report their government salaries on their annual disclosures, but all rank-and-file members earn $174,000 a year. That, combined with the more than $878,000 Sanders reported in his filing, puts the democratic socialist’s 2016 payday at roughly $1,052,000.

In addition to his take-home pay, publisher St. Martin’s Press paid all expenses on Sanders’ national book tour last November and December, which took him to 12 states and the District of Columbia. Disclosure of the total was not required, and Sanders did not provide it.

Then there’s a batch of retirement mutual funds held in the name of his wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders. The Senate only requires disclosure within broad dollar ranges — for instance, $15,001 to $50,000. So it’s impossible to ascertain the exact value of the retirement funds, but they are worth somewhere between $192,000 and $815,000.

In the “liabilities” category, Sanders lists two mortgages: one worth between $250,001 and $500,000, the other worth between $100,001 and $250,000.

Sanders’ most infamous real estate transaction — his 2016 purchase of a $575,000 lakefront home in North Hero — has been concealed behind an entity named the Islands Family Trust. In his Senate filing, Sanders discloses that he is “a co-trustee in a family trust created when we bought a summer home.”

Because the Senate’s disclosure standards are comfortably loose, we know much less about our junior senator’s finances than we would if he, say, released his tax returns.

But he doesn’t do that. During his 2016 presidential campaign, Sanders released only a summary of his 2014 tax return. As the fact-checking website PolitiFact noted, of all the candidates for president last year, “Sanders’ releases are less extensive than anybody’s but Donald Trump.”

Good company.

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John Walters was the political columnist for Seven Days from 2017-2019. A longtime journalist, he spent many years as a news anchor and host for public radio stations in Michigan and New Hampshire. He’s the author of Roads Less Traveled: Visionary New England Lives, published by Plaidswede Press.

27 replies on “Walters: Bernie Sanders Made More Than $1 Million in 2016”

  1. BIRDS OF A FEATHER , FLOCK TOGETHER. Hillary is a criminal and Bernie did not fight to expose the way She SHUT HIM DOWN by manipulating the media as well as other deeds—BECAUSE He could not “come into a court room with CLEAN HANDS. Like a box of hamsters; but, rich and two legged.

  2. As a true socialist, is he sharing his wealth? Three homes? Not much of a socialist, sounds like a true capitalist. Just like the Obamas & Clintons, preaching redistribution of wealth & socialism but getting filthy rich. All of their followers are drinking the koolaid and are clueless.

  4. Another typical communist hypocrite !
    Just like Obama care is only for the little people and not politicians ; because they have their own medical plan , communism is only for ignorant people and not for the liberal political elites like Sanders and the liberal democratic party !!

  5. You call this reporting, John Walters? This is crap journalism and you know it. What is your personal vendetta against Sanders?

  6. It is not really about how much money you make or have, but it is what you do with it. I get 100% VA disability – al little over $2900/mo and a little over $1,000/mo Social Security, and being a long term Socialist out of that I still find some to give to causes and organizations that I support, all of which probably amounts to about $1K a month, counting what I give to my grand daughter, who is temporarily out of work, and I also provide her with a roof over her head – she still has car payments, and the required insurance, which when she gets a job, I will then spend on other causes that I consider worthy and in my best interest. Bernie’s book advance, like that of Obama, were one time things, and I am willing to bet that both Bernie and Obama will pay their fair share of taxes. On the other hand, we know that Trump got an advance on his books, and with the FEC requirement we also know that he made about $600 Million last year, but because he will not disclose his tax returns, we know nothing about the sources so we cannot know about conflicts of interest. We do know that he has not made a contribution to Trump Chairities for at least 8 years, but has paid no income taxes because it was good business practices. Who among these would you like to have for a neighbor when your lawn mower does not work and his does?

  8. Hay Bernie; “You didn’t build that.” The hypocrisy of the socialist/Communist Bernie Sanders is breathtaking. What puzzles me is why Bernie was unfazed by being screwed by the Democrat Party.

  10. A man of the people — just not your kind of people, suckers! LOL

    Notice the coincidental purchase of his third — third! — home following his Shrillary endorsement. Ahhhh, that sweeeeeet Clinton Ca$h…

    And do remember: SOCIALISM IS FOR THE PEOPLE, NOT THE SOCIALISTS. 😉

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