Bush Says He’s Considering S&L; Fee, Denies It’s a Tax : Bailout of the Industry Is Sought

President Bush today said a fee on savings and loan deposits was among options being weighed to bail out the S&L; industry but he and his advisers insisted that such fees would not violate his pledge not to impose new taxes.

“That’s one option,” Bush told reporters when asked about the fees, which would force savings and loan customers--and perhaps bank and credit union depositors--to pay for part of the multibillion-dollar rescue of the beleaguered thrift industry.

Asked how he reconciled the proposal with his campaign promise of no new taxes, Bush replied: “Is it a tax when a person pays a fee to go to Yosemite Park?”

White House Chief of Staff John Sununu said that the fee scheme is “one of many alternatives still being examined” and that a final package will go to Bush, perhaps as early as next week.

‘You Raise the Premium’

Describing the proposed fees as an insurance premium, Sununu said: “In the insurance industry, if a premium is insufficient, you raise the premium to provide the coverage that the risk demands, both past and present.

“That kind of a premium--if that turns out to be the solution that is looked at or part of the solution that is looked at--clearly . . . is not a tax.”

Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady, who discussed the option in two separate morning television interviews, said the fee would be “very small”--25 cents per $100 on deposit.

But Brady also stressed that it is only one of several measures being considered by the Treasury Department.

‘A Trial Balloon’

“What you’re looking at is a trial balloon. We’re willing to talk about it, to discuss it and see how it flies,” White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said candidly.

Senate Democratic leader George J. Mitchell of Maine indicated that it won’t fly.

“Enough fire may be directed at this balloon that it may fall without interdiction by me,” Mitchell told reporters.

House Banking Committee member Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) termed the idea “one of the worst proposals yet mentioned” for dealing with the problem and added, “President Bush should denounce this immediately. Not only is it a tax, it is a wrongheaded tax.”

Schumer said the proposal in essence “affects the one group that is absolutely blameless, the small depositor.” He said the proposal is essentially dead because “it makes bad economic sense and bad political sense, and that usually means it won’t go anywhere.”

Bankers’ Warning

Donald Ogilvie, executive vice president of the American Bankers Assn., said:

“Ford wasn’t asked to bail out Chrysler, Newark wasn’t asked to bail out New York, nor should every American consumer with a bank account be asked to bail out (the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp.).”

Robert Dugger, ABA’s chief economist, said: “If you impose a deposit insurance tax, raise it on credit unions, thrift institutions and banks, those people that can are going to shift their money to money market mutual funds.

“That means banks will have less money to make automobile loans and home improvement loans, mortgage loans and other consumer loans and business loans.”