The Courier-News from Bridgewater, New Jersey • Page 3

i-fitwaMturoay, rvoruary lo, iwcw Nation Hollander calls budget inadequate. quisitions and maintenance, the chancellor cautioned. Byrne's budget message proposes tuition increases or enrollment cuts to give colleges and junior colleges money without raising the state budget Hollander said students cannot afford higher tuition, room, board or student services fees. Byrne's message does not say how a $210 million revenues gap in the $5.1 billion proposed budget should be closed. The governor is leaving the job of eliminating the shortfall to the come tax that would raise the levy on wealthy persons to J.5 percent from IS percent, Hollander said.

He also advocated extending the percent sales tax to professional services and taxing the price instead of volume on 'commodities such as gasoline and liquor. Sales tax reforms failed in the Legislature earlier this year. Leaders of both legislative houses disagree on how the state will get more money to meet state needs. Assembly Speaker Christopher Jack-man announced he "won't allow" "Requests from the colleges are very carefully evaluated. We held 20 hours of public bearings and the board significantly cut what was asked." Byrne's proposal would force the firing of 150 teachers and would eliminate 600 to 2,000 courses in 65 two-and four-year colleges, Hollander said.

"New Jersey has a ratio of one faculty member to 20 or 22 students now, and that's among the least favorable in the Northeast," be added. The faculty-student ratio is smaller in neighboring states, be explained. By R. BRIERLEY THOMPSON Associated Press Writer TRENTON Board of Higher Education members and Chancellor T. Edward Hollander said yesterday that the state's budget proposal was inadequate to meet educational needs.

New Jersey's 1981 spending plan, proposed by Gov. Brendan T. Byrne, allots $475 million for higher education. The proposal is $8 million above current spending, but $31.5 million less than Hollander and the board say are needed. hieher tuition.

higner luition. Hollander claimed the state needs a Hollander claimed the state needs a "The vote was unanimous, 12-0, -that "The vote was unanimous, 12-0, 4hat Senate President Joseph Meruno. I Senate President Josep Mercer, warned the Legislature Mercer, warned the doesn want to raise taxes. doesn't want to raise taxe i A II Also looming are 15 percent cuts in cnuuADnum i a unco the plan is inadequate to meet the supplies, ranging from blackboard three-pronged tax reform. T.

cDWAKU HULLANUtH educational needs of the public," chalk to medical school microscopes. The best way to get more money is education chief Hollander said. and similar reductions in library ac- add another gradient in the state in- Maine officials say Carter victory was slim AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) Presi- Brown 13.8 percent, and uncom- earlier this week. Carter had 45 might "space our reports to the media special events and politic dent Carter's victory margin over Sen. mitted, 2.4 percent percent of the popular vote, Kennedy 39 a greater distance apart.

That would said, "We're in the busini Edward M. Kennedy in the Maine percent and Brown 14 percent. have enabled us to move a little slower information out as quickly Democratic caucuses was considerably Under the party delegate-selection and a little more deliberately." through moiw than inUioii mrL rules, the results mean the president Parhios saiH wnnis nartici. we ve gone inrougn smaller than initially believed, accord rules, the results mean the president Pachios said 33.3 iwnnlp nartiri- special events and political said, "we re in tne Dusmess information out as quickly "We've gone through coverage, oi getting as possible. this for 20 years, Leiser said.

Studies show no should end up with 12 Maine delegates to the national presidential nominating convention, and Kennedy would garner Flrtflghttrt' settlement closer CHICAGO Hopes (or a settlement in a two-day-old firefighters" strike brightened yesterday as city and union representatives returned to the negotiating table this time with federal mediators. The strikers and the city had indicated there would be no early reconciliation of the dispute, but the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service urged a renewed effort No major fires have occurred in the nation's second-largest city since firefighters walked off the job before dawn Thursday in an effort to win a written contract without a no-strike clause that the city demands. 3 arretted In ring theft NEW YORK Three persons have been arrested in connection with the theft of a pharaoh's ring, valued at $30,000, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau said yesterday. The ring, two ounces of solid gold, bears the seal of Ramses VI.

The museum has had it since 1929 and the theft evidently was recent, but the actual date not known, Morgenthau aid. The museum was not aware the ring had been stolen until Tuesday when a telephone caller told museum officials he would act as a go-be tweeen for return of the ring for a fee of $25,000, Morgenthau said. Abscam leaks denied NEW YORK Special prosecutor Thomas Puerto has gone on record as denying that he leaked details of the Abscam investigation to news organizations. Head of the Organized Crime Strike Force in Brooklyn, Puerto confirmed here yesterday a story in the Washington Post that reported his denial. Puerto said he spoke to two newspapers, Newsday on Long Island and the New York Times, only to ask them to hold publication of accounts that FBI agents posing as Arab shieks had videotapes of seven representatives and one senator taking, or agreeing to take, cash bribes for political favors.

Talks on peacekeeping force WASHINGTON The United States has begun preliminary talks with a number of countries on setting up a peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, but U.S. officials said yesterday they do not foresee a Soviet troop withdrawal soon. The idea behind a peacekeeping unit would be to set the stage for a neutral Afghanistan. Officials say there are now some 95,000 Soviet troops in the country reinforcing what the State Department calls "a puppet regime." The administration has not made a formal proposal to its allies and other interested parties, officials here said. And there have been no negotiations with the Soviet Union.

The caucuses were allowed to begin any time between 1 p.m. and 9 p.m. EST on Sunday. But Pachios also said he should have delayed "that 5:50 p.m. report that CBS was depending on" for making its projection that Carter would win by more than 50 percent.

"They said that Kennedy would end up with about a third of the raw vote and Carter would end up with more than half of the raw vote," he said. "They said that before the evening caucuses and they were wrong." Reached by telephone in New York, Ernest Leiser, CBS vice president for ing to final unofficial results released yesterday by state party officials. State Democratic Party Chairman Harold Pachio said Carter ended up with a 3.4 percent popular vote lead over his challenger from Massachusetts, rather than the 6-percentage-point margin reported late Sunday, when the town and city caucuses were held. The figures released yesterday showed that Carter received 43.6 percent of the vote; Kennedy, 40.2 percent; California Gov. Edmund G.

pated in the caucuses, the first time they were held on a single day. In 1976, when the town caucuses were spread out over a five-week period, only 6,800 people took part. Pachios said final, official results on Sunday's caucuses would not be available until they are received by mail at party headquarters, probably sometime next week. At a news conference, the party chairman said CBS News "intruded" in the caucus process by airing an early projection of Carter winning. He said that the next time, the party indication that broadcasting early presidential returns from one part of the country affects the outcome elsewhere, he said.

According to the unofficial returns: Carter received 14,528 caucus votes, 43.6 percent, for 1,017 delegates to the state convention, or 46.7 percent. Kennedy received 13,384 votes, 40.2 percent, for 847 delgates, 38.9 percent. Brown received 4,621 votes, 13 8 percent, for 263 delegates, 12.1 percent. Uncommitteed were 793 votes, 2.4 percent, for 52 delegates, 2.4 percent. 10.

Brown will not get any, because he did not receive 15 percent of the vote, the minimum necessary for getting any delegates under the rules. Actually, the national convention delegates will be named at a state convention to be attended by the delegates elected at last Sunday's caucuses. With about 50 of the state's 486 Democratic caucuses still unreported Atlantic gas well called promising 5 I. i A 1 fhS I i mmi' 'JTr World ATLANTIC CITY (AP) An exploratory gas well being drilled in the offshore Baltimore Canyon area "looks promising," Getty Oil Co. chairman Harold E.

Berg said yesterday. Berg's cautious statement was the most optimistic and specific word from an oil executive so far on the prospects of a commercial gas field off the mid-Atlantic coast. Berg warned that the well, being drilled by Texaco Inc. about 106 miles east of Atlantic City, must be completed and evaluated before preliminary work can begin to bring gas ashore. "The well at this point looks promising and that's all you can say for it," Berg said in a telephone interview from Getty's Los Angeles headquarters.

Texaco spokesman James Robertson said the Texaco well is at least a month away from testing. He said the leased semi-submersible rig Ocean Victory is drilling below 15,000 feet on a planned hole. "If it does prove to be a good well and that 'if' should be capitalized many, many times but if it does prove good, then we'd have to do some calculating on reserves and there's a possibility that might make that (area) commercial," he said. "On the other side, if it proves to be a dud or a mediocre well, then I think your hopes would be pretty well dampened," Berg said. Getty has a 20 percent interest in the Texaco well, the fifth to be drilled by Texaco and Tenneco Inc.

in a very small area of the Baltimore Canyon Trough. There have been five gas strikes and one oil strike within a 2-mile radius of Texaco's first gas discovery in August 1978. The present hole is a "delineation well" designed to determine the size of the natural gas reservoir. In nearly two years of drilling, 16 dry holes in 21 exploratory wells have been reported in the Baltimore Canyon area. Texaco and Murphy Oil Co.

still are drilling. Robertson refused comment on Berg's statement. Flooding continues in California Atioclattd Prtsi PMo Residents in the Laurel Canyon afea of Los Angeles tramp through the mud and debris left by heavy rains early yesterday that triggered flash floods and mudslides in the area. More than 13 Inches of water has fallen on the area since since Wednesday. Discount rate increase to have wide impact Leftists march near embassy SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador About 250 leftists, shouting "Long live the revolution!" demonstrated yesterday in front of two government buildings where their comrades hold several hundred hostages.

In an effort to ease tensions and stop the bloodshed that has taken about a dozen lives this week, the civilian-military junta freed 21 persons jailed during recent battles with security forces. A pro-government rally held by the Christian Democrat Party in front of the presidential palace drew an estimated 600 persons, although organizers had predicted tens of thousands would attend. The crowd applauded several speakers, who condemned the leftists' occupations of public buildings and embassies, and then dispersed quietly. 25 missing In boat sinking MANAUS, Brazil Twenty-five people were missing and feared drowned after the wooden riverboat they were traveling on sank in the Amazon authorities here said yesterday. Thirty-five other passangers swam to safety, they added.

The local port authority said it hoped to find other survivors from Thursday's accident because the boat was equipped with life preservers. Officials said "around 60" people were aboard the boat but did not have a precise figure. The accident took place 150 miles upriver from the jungle city of Manaus, in a part of the Amazon that is technically called the Solimoes River. The boat was making a regular passenger run from Manaus to the Colombian border, 700 miles west. ing recession," he said.

William Cox, a Commerce Department economist, agreed, saying the move should have a "psychological effect" on businesses. The Carter administration has been forecasting a recession for this year, but the figures so far have shown no sign that the economy is slowing down. Increasing the discount rate is a primary way for the Federal Reserve to tighten credit in hopes of cooling down the economy in an effort to dampen inflation. Despite predictions of a recession, retail sales increased substantially in January and the supply of money has recently grown faster than the Federal Reserve wishes. Moreover, wholesale prices rose 1.6 percent last month, the steepest monthly jump in more than five years.

If that, pace continued Loans for high-priced items like automobiles also should be more expensive. Businesses may have to cut back production and many workers may face layoffs. "The Federal Reserve is telling us that we will get that recession whether we like it or not," said economist Otto Eckstein, head of Data Resources a Massachusetts economic forecasting firm. "But. there's no other medicine to fight inflation." Eckstein expects the Federal Reserve's action to have a sobering effect on businesses that might have planned to borrow money for continued expansion.

"It should make business more conservative about production planning and hiring, which has continued at high levels despite warnings of an impend WASHINGTON (AP) The Federal Reserve Board's decision yesterday to raise its bank discount rate is going to make it more expensive to buy a home and could push some companies into cutbacks that will cost jobs, economists say. The discount rate, which was boosted from 12 percent to 13 percent, is the interest the Federal Reserve charges its member banks. When those banks must pay more to borrow, they eventually will charge their customers more for all kinds of loaqs. According to economists, that means: Homebuyers will face steeper mortgage payments. Rates for home loans already are over 13 percent.

The price of a home will remain out of the reach of the average potential homebuyer. grow, particularly with anticipated increases in defense spending. "The budget is too much of an election year document. It lacks enough restraint for these times," Greenspan said. "Consequently, the pressure to battle inflation is disproportionately placed on the shoulders of the Federal Reserve." Experts say the Federal Reserve's efforts to tighten the supply of loan money also has a disproportionate effect on the housing industry.

"Home loan activity in many markets throughout the country has slowed to a trickle and the Fed's action today could well shut it off completely," said William B. O'Connell, executive vice president of the U.S. League of Savings Associations. through 1980, wholesale prices would increase more than 20 percent by the end of the year. Prices paid on the retail level by consumers traditionally rise faster than wholesale prices.

Consumer prices climbed 13.3 percent last year. Alan Greenspan, who was chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers under then-President Gerald Ford, applauded the discount rate increase as an effort by the Federal Reserve "to adjust to the inflationary pressures." Both Greenspan and Eckstein said the effort to raise interest rates was necessary because President Carter's budget for fiscal 1981 does not go far enough toward meeting anti-inflationary goals. It proposes a $16 billion deficit that most experts believe will fersey Yugoslavs prepare for Marshall Tito's death was to guarantee enough hotel space for the large number of foreign dignitaries and guests expected for a state funeral. Yugoslav newspapers no longer published get-well messages from home and abroad, although such messages filled the columns of major dailies before and after the amputation of Tito's left leg Jan. 20.

Yugoslav officials insisted that Tito's death, though a great national shock, would not significantly alter the country's foreign and domestic policies. These include its staunch independence from Moscow Tito broke BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -President Josip Broz Tito, gravely ill with heart and kidney problems, rallied slightly, his doctors said yesterday. But Yugoslavs braced for the death of their 87-year-old leader. "A certain improvement in the overall health condition of the which came about in the morning hours on the 14th of this month, continues to hold," the eight-doctor panel announced from the hospital in Ljubljana. "Intensive medical measures are being taken toward maintaining and stabilizing the tendency." The midday bulletin was the only In a posh diplomatic district of, southern Belgrade, large crews of men and women were busy landscaping an area sometimes mentioned as a possible Tito burial site.

The site, in the city's Dedinje district, is located around the Museum of the 25th of May, which is filled with mementos of Tito's career. Passersby could see two armored cars parked behind the iron gates at the downtown headquarters of the Defense Ministry, and hotels told guests reservations could not be guaranteed beyond one night. It was believed the new procedure one released by the doctors, who have been treating Tito at the Slovenian hospital for more than a month. It was the second straight day the doctors failed to release a bulletin in time for the main evening television news program. Yugoslav officials held out little hope that Tito, who has led this country since the end of World War II, would recover.

"We haven't given any false hopes," said Information Minister Ismail Ba-jra. "I have never heard in the world of anyone living a thousand years and we Yugoslavs are no different." with the Stalinist Kremlin in 1948 -and the stable relationships between its various national groups, such as Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, who have often been at odds. "For us the main problem is being strong, internally and economically," said one prominent Yugoslav who asked not to be identified. In an apparently related develop-; ment, the official Tanjug news agency reported that the presidency and Com- munist Party committee of the south-ern province of Kosovo announced that the local "political and security situ-ation" was "very favorable." 350 evacuated In school blaze NEWARK About 350 parochial school children were evacuated safely yesterday when fire swept through piles of old clothing stored in the basement of their school. Fire Director John P.

Caufield said the fire started in piles of used clothing kept for a neighborhood thrift shop and was contained in the school basement. The children were evacuated from the St. Columbia Catholic School in 45 seconds, school officials said. No children were seriously injured, although one unidentified youngster was treated for an asthma attack. Classrooms were not damaged in the two-alarm blaze, which started at about 11:45 a.m.

and was Court order delays controls on hospital rates under control within 45 minutes, police said. Grand Jury probes Byrne party TRENTON A state grand jury is investigating a 1977 fiaidraising party for Gov. Brendan T. Byrne's re-election because of reports that some of the contributions were not recorded, a state source said yesterday. The source, who asked not to be identified, said the grand jury probe is limited to the single fundraiser, a party in Cherry Hill in the spring of 1977, not Byrne's entire campaign.

would be 2 percent above the estimated costs, Scibetta said. The cost estimates, he said, would be based on the hospitals' 1978 income plus inflation, and does not include the costs of indigent care, bad debts and any increase in the number of patients that may occur in the coming year. "We don't think the rate will be TRENTON (AP) The New Jersey Hospital Association has received a court-ordered delay in the state's new system of government control over hospital rates. The first 26 hospitals to go on the system were supposed to decide by next Tuesday whether they will accept, reject or conditionally accept the rates that the state Hospital Rate Setting Commission proposed last month. But Thursday, Superior Court Judge Bertram Polow of Morristown Issued a stay on the deadline.

Under the order, the new deadline will be five days after the state and Bruce C. Vladeck, an assistant health commissioner, decided that a delay was not needed because the federal question was not an immediate problem, said department spokesman Mitch Leon. Under the state's new system, the commission sets the charges for 383 standard illnesses at each hospital. The patient would be charged according to the diagnosis of his problem, rather than for the length of his hospital stay. These new rates will include a share of the cost of caring for indigent patients, who can't pay their bills and are not Insured.

The cost of indigent care federal governments complete negotiations over how Medicare and Medicaid payments to hospitals will be made under the new rate setting system. Louis Scibetta, executive vice president of the association, said the hospitals want to know all the facts about the system before they are forced to make a decision on the rates. "Until the hospitals know what the rules of the game are, it's unreasonable for us to make a decision," Scibetta said. He said a verbal request for a delay in the deadline was turned down, currently Is borne by the hospitals themselves. The problem is that federal government has not firmly agreed to go along with the system, Scibetta said.

In the current negotiations, he said, the federal government has Insisted that hospitals place a strict limit on their yearly Income. If a hospital goes over its limit, he said, it would be forced to return the excess money to the federal government For Medicaid, the ceiling would be the hospital's estimated costs for the year, and for -Medicare, the celling Byrne, asked about the probe during a proclama anywhere near adequate," Scibetta said. tion-signing ceremony yesterday, said he knew nothing about it. However, Vladeck predicted that no The grand jury reportedly has been wonting on hospital would have to make a payback to the federal government until at least 1983, and Vladeck hopes no paybacks the investigation for three months and last month interviewed former Assemblyman Kenneth W. Gewerti, D-Gloucester.

wiu oe necessary, Leon saia..