The annual income for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and his wife dropped about $680,000 in 2006 from the nearly $1.7 million they took in the prior year, according to documents released Monday.
Information released by the Chicago Democrat's presidential campaign indicated that the Obamas' total income decreased because in 2005 they had a major book deal and a one-time bonus.
Their 2006 income of $991,296 included Obama's salary of $157,082 and his wife's administrator's pay of $273,618 from the University of Chicago Hospitals and $51,200 in director fees from a food distributor, TreeHouse Inc.
Virginia Tech shootings
Obama spoke Monday night at a rally in Milwaukee. What was intended to be a raucous campaign stop with music and balloons turned into a somber oration as he called on Americans to oppose the forces that lead to acts of violence like the campus shooting at Virginia Tech.
"It makes all of our hearts ache, especially those of us who are parents," the Illinois senator said of the rampage earlier in the day at Blacksburg, Va., that killed 33 people, including the gunman.
He read an excerpt from the speech Robert Kennedy gave after Martin Luther King Jr. was shot to death in 1968. In that speech Kennedy said society was degraded by its tolerance of violent acts.
"We continue to be degraded by murders, crime and all manner of abuse perpetrated on our children, and Bobby Kennedy was right - we tolerate it," Obama told a crowd of about 4,000 people at the downtown Milwaukee Theater. "Things haven't changed as much as they should have in the past 40 years."
Book income
Most of the Obamas' income, $506,618, came from royalties on two books that became best-sellers, including one published last fall, "The Audacity of Hope: Reclaiming the American Dream."
Their tax returns showed a decline in charitable contributions, which totaled about $60,000 in 2006, some $17,000 less than what they gave a year before.
Among the largest beneficiaries last year: the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, $13,107; CARE, $15,000; Chicago's Muntu Dance Theater, $5,000; and Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, $22,500.
The Obamas paid $277,431 in federal taxes - an overpayment of $40,856, which they designated for estimated tax payments this year.