November 15, 1990

Mayor David N. Dinkins said yesterday that he had not abandoned his proposal for a payroll tax to finance his ambitious anti-crime plan, even though there was virtually no support for it among state legislative leaders whose approval would be needed. But Mr. Dinkins conceded that the financing was uncertain, that it might not be approved by the end of this year -- which would put his plan to hire thousands of additional police officers behind schedule. He said it was up to legislative leaders to tell him what taxes they preferred if they did not favor his.

Federal savings and loan regulators said yesterday that they had filed $6.8 billion in claims against Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. in its bankruptcy proceeding and charged that the securities firm had "willfully plundered" more than 40 failed institutions "through bribery, coercion, extortion, fraud and other illegal means." The prosecution of Drexel in the bankruptcy proceeding marks a turning point in the Government's battles to uncover fraud at many savings institutions that failed, since it represents the broadest assault yet on many of the most powerful figures in the high-yield "junk bond" market.

A year after freedom began sweeping through the countries of Eastern Europe, the full implications, including some unpleasant surprises, are beginning to sink in for their rich Western neighbors. Eastern Europeans used to be the distant, poor relatives they felt sorry for and sent presents to on holidays. On rare visits behind the Iron Curtain, they could feel good about themselves by deploring conditions there and issuing invitations that could never be taken up to come and visit.

Eleven and a half years as Prime Minister, battling against "socialism" and for the British national interest have worn out scores of Margaret Thatcher's own appointees, her popularity and her European partners. Today all that came back to haunt her, with a bitter political challenge from Michael Heseltine, a pro-European figure she had driven out of her Cabinet in 1986. A handsome, leonine 57-year-old who has been planning to be Prime Minister ever since his student days at Oxford, Mr. Heseltine openly called upon the 372 Conservative members of Parliament to overthrow Mrs. Thatcher as party leader and Prime Minister in a closed ballot set for next Tuesday. He had parted ways with Mrs. Thatcher in 1986, when he abruptly left her Cabinet. Britain's Role in Europe On the surface, the issue is the two-decades-long British argument over whether to be a full-fledged partner in the European Community, driving ahead toward political and monetary union as Mr. Heseltine and other "Europeanists" want, or to slow the process down to preserve the centuries-old hard-won prerogatives of parliamentary democracy, as Mrs. Thatcher insists.

Governor-elect Lowell P. Weicker Jr. of Connecticut was told by retiring Gov. William A. O'Neill today that the revenue shortfall for the next fiscal year would be far greater than expected -- amounting to almost a third of this year's budget. It was the bleakest estimate yet of the state's rapidly growing fiscal crisis.