Luxury Tax

Management and union negotiators suspended their public bickering yesterday and met twice in an attempt to move closer to a new labor agreement, but time is running short. The strike deadline imposed by the Major League Baseball Players Association is little more than two days away, and there still has been no breakthrough on any of the three most difficult issues facing the bargaining teams. Negotiators on the management side had hoped to have a third meeting late last night but left their offices at 10:45 p.m. after the union decided to reconvene today, Major League Baseball's Web site said.

Side by side on the floor of the Convention Center, two extraordinary boats are on display as part of the Chesapeake Bay Boat Show.One looks like a Winnebago riding a barge. This blockish affair has a wraparound porch and a roof deck. The interior of the rectangular cabin has the feel of a suburban eat-in kitchen and family room -- blue plush carpets, bookcase, wood paneling, sofa, formica countertop, stainless steel double sink. This baby is built for comfort, not for speed.Just a few feet away sits a long, sleek jet-black power boat with four brightly chromed exhaust pipes extending out the rear.

Ann Arbor, Michigan. SIN TAXES are going up, but Helco, the corporate leader in sin, isn't fighting the plan. Instead, Helco (formerly the firm of Hellfire & Damnation) is actually celebrating.''Sure, we aren't happy with the new taxes on beer and cigarettes,'' said Helco spokesman Daimon Mephisto. ''But we look at the whole package as a victory for our Division of Greed.''Greed was supposed to have had its decade in the sun, and Helco had been looking around for a new deadly sin to take its place.

A steady downpour pelted the U.S. Powerboat Show as it opened Thursday, but people lined up anyway. To Fred Quimby, the people out on thegray, blustery day were a pretty sight."

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.

Major League Baseball needs to make sweeping changes in the way it distributes industry revenues and consider moving some franchises to narrow the competitive gap between large-market and small-market clubs, according to an economic report released by ownership yesterday. The report, produced by an economic study committee that included former Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker, former Senate majority leader George Mitchell, Yale president Richard Levin and political commentator George Will, calls on Major League Baseball to institute a 50 percent luxury tax on payrolls above $84 million and share a higher percentage of local revenues.

More than a thousand jobs were lost in Maryland during the boating industry's four-year slump. Marinas, which during the boom had been filled to capacity, had lots of vacancies. Boat builders had surplus stock at hand as financially squeezed would-be purchasers deserted show rooms.Still, Maryland was not the state worst hit by a combination of recession and the 10 percent luxury tax on boats priced above $100,000. Now that the tax is his tory, the boating industry is staging a slow comeback.

C Major League Baseball Players Association director Donald Fehr huddled with acting baseball commissioner Bud Selig in Washington yesterday, apparently searching for a reason to restart stalled negotiations.The talks must resume soon if there is to be any hope of starting the 1995 season with major-league players, but both sides have spent the past two weeks steering clear of the bargaining table.Whenever and wherever the talks resume, there has to be a dramatic bid to bridge the wide economic gap that stands between ownership's highly restrictive payroll tax system and a union proposal that would affect only one free-spending team.