June 7, 1990

LEAD: Representatives of the Florio administration and the State Legislature today began trying to tailor the Governor's proposals on how New Jersey raises and spends money to Tuesday's State Supreme Court decision on school aid.

LEAD: Three weeks after the Legislature adopted a budget that political leaders insisted was sound, a major credit agency, Moody's Investors Services, dealt the state a stinging setback today, lowering its long-term credit rating one notch.

LEAD: When Giancarlo Parretti, a garrulous Italian businessman who says he plans to build the world's most powerful entertainment company, announced a tender offer for the MGM/UA Communications Company three months ago, there was widespread skepticism about whether the deal would be completed.

LEAD: BUDGET overruns, late delivery and ambitious designs often land architects in the doghouse. These doghouses, however, might not be such bad places to be.

LEAD: For Donald J. Trump, the 43-year-old entrepreneur who built his business empire during the 1980's with borrowed money, the stakes are highest, and the game hardest, along the sandy Boardwalk of Atlantic City.

LEAD: The creditors of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. voiced strong skepticism yesterday about the firm's reorganization plan, questioning whether Drexel's management should supervise the liquidation.

LEAD: Although American business leaders were heartened by Mikhail S. Gorbachev's speeches in the last week on economic reform in the Soviet Union, they warn that a series of obstacles still prevents them from investing in a big way in that country.

LEAD: After assessing the New York State budget adopted three weeks ago, Moody's Investors Services lowered the state's long-term credit rating by one notch.

LEAD: After closely studying nuclear plants in Eastern Europe, West European scientists have concluded that the reactors fall far short of Western safety standards and in many cases should be radically modified or closed.

LEAD: More than a decade after they led a revolt against taxes and spending, California voters turned around in elections Tuesday and approved higher gasoline taxes, a looser limit on state spending and more than $4 billion in bonds.

LEAD: Bucky Dent's short and unproductive reign as Yankee manager ended suddenly today when Dent was dismissed with his team in last place. In a strange twist, the move came in the city where Dent enjoyed his greatest triumph as a player.

LEAD: A Federal judge in Manhattan has declared unconstitutional a New York City Transit Authority policy in the mid-1980's that mandated testing for marijuana use for all employees and job applicants.