Luxury Tax

Callers to SUNDIAL are almost evenly divided over the new luxury tax on airplanes, boats, jewelry, furs and expensive cars.Of 394 callers, 199, or 50.5 percent, favor abolition of the tax, and 195, or 49.5 percent, think the tax should be kept."

It appears Jeremy Lin is leaving New York, and for once, Knicks owner James Dolan has decided to put the checkbook down. By not matching a 3-year, $25.1 million offer sheet from the Houston Rockets, Lin is heading to Texas. Dolan has a history of throwing money at his problems -- with both the Knicks and New York Rangers, which he also owns -- and this time, he didn't. He just felt it wasn't worth it, and I have to agree. There's no question Lin can play in the NBA and produce. His 14 points and six assists per game last season are evident of that.

What are some of the ramifications of the new tax law outside of the obvious desire of some people to avoid luxury spending and the 10 percent excise tax?"

Once again, we have our state legislature using scare tactics to justify more tax increases that we do not need ("Budget would slash education, police aid," March 6). They threaten to cut funding for essential police and fire services and the like if they don't raise taxes again and call their response to Gov.Martin O'Malley's budget a "Doomsday Budget. " Well, the real Doomsday Budget will more likely be what they pass. This is no time to mirror the mistakes made by other states and the federal government where spending is out of control.

It was a '90s kind of deal. The Cleveland Indians traded their contract problem to the Atlanta Braves for a star-quality outfielder who had priced himself out of the starting lineup and a center fielder on a fixed income.Confused?This is only the beginning. Major-league owners have been trying for years to find a way to emulate the NBA and the NFL and -- with the signing of the new collective bargaining agreement -- they finally have succeeded. You can't go to a game without tripping over the luxury tax threshold or pick up the newspaper without getting another unwanted economics lesson.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The latest obstacle in the baseball talks is something called a luxury tax. Union chief Donald Fehr and the owners are haggling over what the maximum payroll level should be, and how much of a tax should be assessed upon those teams who exceed the maximum.tTC They might as well be talking about the Orioles, whose payroll figures to be among the highest in baseball this year -- perhaps surpassing $45 million, including all benefits and insurance costs.At the moment, the Orioles have eight players under contract: Cal Ripken, who will make $6 million in 1995; left fielder Brady Anderson ($3.25 million)

ANNAPOLIS -- The 160 luxurious sailboats are being floated into their preassigned dock spaces, and the gala tents are being set up for 350 land-based purveyors of electronics, marina space, insurance, boat loans and sailing schools.The 22nd annual United States Sailboat Show, one of the biggest in the country, is about to get under way, bringing upward of 60,000 boat lovers to this quaint, waterfront town.If past years are any indication, they'll spend at least $15 million outside the gates of the show, providing a big boost for area restaurants, bars and shops.

Boat dealers in Maryland and across the nation are hoping that Congress will soon throw them a lifeline by repealing a luxury tax on yachts that has crippled an industry already wracked by the recession.The House is expected to vote this week on a deficit-reduction bill that includes the repeal of the 10 percent luxury tax on boats costing more than $100,000, which together with the recession cost the boating industry billions of dollars in lost sales and tens of thousands of jobs.There is strong support in both the House and Senate, and among both parties, to end the tax. Capitol Hill staffers expect the tax to be eliminated -- retroactive to Jan. 1, 1993 -- before Congress leaves for its August recess.

The United States Sailboat Show opens in Annapolis tomorrow with boat dealers buoyed by an upswing in sales that they say stems from the repeal of the federal luxury tax on boats."

Washington. - I prefer the term boat rather than yacht,'' says Sen. John Chaffee of Rhode Island. He is pushing for repeal of the so-called ''luxury tax,'' enacted as part of last year's budget agreement. The tax applies to the purchase of furs and jewels costing over $10,000; cars over $30,000; yachts, er, boats over $100,000; and private airplanes over $250,000. The tax is 10 percent of the excess -- e.g., $200 on a $32,000 car.When President Bush abandoned his ''no new taxes'' pledge, he hid his shame by clinging to a strained pledge of no new increases in ''income tax rates.

AP names Bradford Player of the Year col. football Sam Bradford of Oklahoma was voted the Associated Press College Football Player of the Year yesterday. He beat out the same two quarterbacks he did in capturing the Heisman Trophy - Colt McCoy of Texas and Tim Tebow of Florida. Bradford received 27 votes from the AP media panel that votes in the weekly poll. The sophomore quarterback was followed by McCoy with 17 votes. Tebow won the award last year and had 16 votes this time. Texas Tech receiver Michael Crabtree had two votes.

St. Louis -- At 1 a.m. on Saturday, there was just one final wrinkle in baseball's new labor agreement. Players wanted to raise the luxury tax to some exorbitant amount that probably wouldn't have penalized a single team, not even the New York Yankees. They didn't get their way, the sanctity of the luxury tax was upheld and four days later, when union leaders and the Major League Baseball brain trust gathered to announce the new collective bargaining agreement, they had nothing but love to share.

CHICAGO - After rejecting the latest league proposal without attempting to negotiate off it, NHL players association executive director Bob Goodenow is rumored to be ready to present the league with another proposal before tomorrow - when most observers expect the league will cancel the rest of the 2004-05 season. It's unlikely any public statements will be made other than to announce a deal or the season's cancellation. But rumors are spreading Goodenow will present NHL commissioner Gary Bettman with a proposal for a deal that may run for as long as eight seasons.

TORONTO - The NHL and the players union exchanged insults and accusations yesterday and made no progress toward a new labor deal, chilling their relations as the league's lockout of players reached the three-month mark. In their second meeting in six days, the NHL rejected a union proposal centered on a 24 percent salary rollback and a luxury tax triggered at $45 million. The union, in turn, rejected a counterproposal by the NHL to set salaries at 54 percent of revenue because it sees a salary cap as an unacceptable restriction of the marketplace.

NEW YORK - Every kid who has ever traded a baseball card knows that trade is good thing. Of course, in the grown-up world, baseball is like free trade: It's neither free nor necessarily fair. The New York Yankees invest more in their team than Tampa Bay and consequently most kids (the ones who are often the true judge of value in baseball) would prefer a Derek Jeter card to that of the current Devil Rays shortstop. To try to give the sport a more level playing field, major-league baseball has developed a plan in which the teams that invest the most in players pay a so-called luxury tax to the teams that invest less.

Highlights of the tentative agreement reached by baseball players and owners, as obtained by the Associated Press from player and management sources: Length: After ratification, starts with the 2002 season and runs through Dec. 19, 2006. Luxury tax thresholds:Teams will be taxed on the portions of payrolls above the following thresholds: 2002 - No tax; 2003 - $117 million; 2004 - $120.5 million; 2005 - $128 million; 2006 - $136.5 million Luxury tax rates: First time over threshold: 17.5 percent in 2003, 22.5 percent in 2004 and 2005, no tax in 2006.

Washington -- Last year, some 220 workers built boats at Pearson Yachts Corp. in Portsmouth, R.I. This year, there are 50 workers left.On Maryland's Eastern Shore, Harrison Yacht Sales in Graysonville has trimmed its 95 employees to eight.Those job cuts are among an estimated 19,000 blue-collar marine jobs lost throughout the nation this year. The culprit, boat industry officials say: a 10-percent federal "luxury tax" that went into effect in January on new pleasure boats that cost more than $100,000.

NEW YORK -- Lost among the economic complexities of baseball's brand new labor agreement was a simple fact that probably had as much to do with preventing the industry's ninth consecutive work stoppage as any revenue-sharing number or luxury tax threshold. They got it. They finally got it. The owners realized that they didn't have to force the Major League Baseball Players Association to turn the clock back to 1972 to get a contract that would enhance competitive balance and solve some of their economic problems.

NEW YORK - Negotiators for Major League Baseball's players and owners - faced with today's union-imposed strike deadline - were working early this morning trying to hammer out a new labor agreement. Owners and the players association were attempting to reach a compromise on the troublesome luxury tax proposal that has been the major obstacle to a settlement. Union officials contacted player representatives for the 30 major-league clubs by conference call at 11 p.m. to report they were nearing a deal, but they also cautioned that there was still ground to cover overnight to ensure labor peace for another four years.