ustxtxb_obs_1987_04_03_50_00019-00000_000.pdf

Life Insurance and Annuities Martin Elfant, CLU Silt& 4223 Richmond, Suite 213, Houston, TX 77027 OF CANADA COLOR 1 411 “11′ CRAYON Di \\Ili\( &SNITI I Nlt\\W YCq K, Color work has come a long way since you were in grade school. Lasers and hi-tech processes have entered the printing market. We’re here to help you through your product production every step of the way! Call us at 442-7836 for a quote on your next project. Emloyee Owned and Managed COMMUNICATIONS, INC. AUSTIN, TEXAS 1714 S. Congress 442-7836 Data Processing Typesetting Printing Mailing Reagan administration” but that “stabilization” is a good word. He is pushing a plan to stabilize the price of oil at $18 a barrel. ci It would cost the Federal Savings and $4 billion to deal with the 56 insolvent savings and loan associations in Texas, judging from testimony in Washington before the House Banking Committee. According to Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, 56 of the 347 insolvent thrifts in the U.S. are in Texas. Roy D. Green, president of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas, told the committee that dealing with the insolvent thrifts in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Mississippi, and Arkansas would cost the FSLIC $5 billion to $8 billion, between 60 percent and 70 percent of that for the Texas institutions, alone. Using midpoints between these ranges, 65 percent of $6.5 billion is $4.225 billion. Various plans have been advanced to save the situation, including a $15 billion “recapitalization” plan for the the issuance to troubled thrifts of federal credit they would pay for at market interest rates when and if they could write off bad loans across ten years instead of immediately \(the proposal of Columnist Jack Anderson and his associates have been raising awkward questions for Speaker Jim Wright, who has been badgering federal regulators for threatening to liquidate troubled thrifts. Wright, per Anderson, defends Vernon Savings and Loan, owned by Donald Dixon, to Treasury officials, but the company provided its officers luxury automobiles, a hunting club, a yacht, five airplanes, three beach houses, and hefty bonuses based on “inflated profits,” and since 1982 has paid millions in dividends indirectly to Dixon. Wright also defends Independent American S&L, which has 47 branches in Texas. According to a report from the Federal Home Loan Bank Board that Anderson has seen, this company misclassified investments and loans, used nonconforming commercial real estate appraisals, engaged in “conflict-ofinterest transactions,” and is now losing about $9 million a month. Anderson points out that Dixon acknowledges he has made modest political contributions to Wright and that Thomas M. Gaubert, the majority stockholder of Independent American, and his family have contributed to Wright’s campaigns and other Democratic funds. V How does Texas look to a race tout? The New York Times, in a recent story from Hialeah, Florida, provides the answer. “The racing industry considers the South, especially Georgia and Texas, as its two great untapped markets,” said the Times, “and efforts to pass the necessary legislation have come closer and closer to passage each year. Texas is eventually expected to become a major racing center, possibly rivaling New York and California.” Texas voters will have their say on parimutuel betting in a November referendum; the measure cleared the legislature last session. 1/ Billionaire H. Ross Perot, announcing he would give millions to a Texas Research Park in San Antonio, said in passing about the city’s mayor Henry Cisneros: “Could he be governor? Absolutely. Could he be president? Absolutely.” V John Connally is resuming work on his autobiography, spurred on by news that Harper & Row signed James Reston, Jr., to write an unauthorized biography of the former Texas governor, according to Maxine Mesinger in the Houston Chronicle. v Gov. Clements’s desire that Jess Hay be replaced as chairman of the UT board of regents pits the state’s top Republican against one of the country’s top ten businessman-fundraisers for Democratic presidential candidates. Hay has been fighting Clements’s proposed cuts in higher education funding. Clements maintains that Hay has broken his word by not keeping the lines of communication open and instead going public with his disagreements on the education budget. The governor had some temporary difficulty with the Senate when one of his nominees to the UT board, Louis Beecherl of Dallas, seemed to admit that he had agreed to vote to oust Hay as chairman if he were appointed. The Senate sent Clements’s regent nominations back to committee, from whence they emerged again a week later. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 19