For the first time in a year, there was major movement at the baseball labor talks, with owners cutting back significantly on their demands.
Owners gave the union a plan Thursday night that:
– Abandons their attempt to link a luxury tax to revenue.
– Drops their luxury tax rate from 50 percent to 40 percent.
– Increases the threshold where the tax would start from $44 million to $46 million.
The luxury tax on high-payroll teams, which would help fund revenue sharing, would be in effect from 1998 to 2001, with the threshold rising 7 percent per year until it was at $56.3 million in 2001.
The amounts of payrolls over the threshold would be taxed, discouraging high-spending teams from adding more high-salaried players.
Union head Donald Fehr wouldn’t characterize the plan, and union officials told management’s negotiators they wouldn’t have a response until the end of next week.
