Usery Hopes New Offer Will Lead Somewhere : Baseball: Federal mediator thinks luxury-tax idea may at least produce more meaningful negotiations with players.

Major league baseball owners said Saturday they will make a new proposal when bargaining talks resume Thursday in Washington.

The new proposal is expected to be based on a payroll luxury tax. The players’ union previously has rejected the concept because of its similarity to a salary cap, but special mediator William J. Usery, concluding three days of talks in Rye Brook, N.Y., said he was optimistic it would lead to meaningful negotiations.

“We’ve said we’ll go (to Washington) and hopefully stay there until we can conclude an agreement,” Usery said.

Said John Harrington, chief executive officer of the Boston Red Sox and the owners’ lead negotiator:

“We’ll use the next three or four days to formulate an economic proposal that takes our concerns and the players’ concerns and moves them closer together--hopefully, at least.”

Under the luxury tax concept, teams could go over a specified ceiling but would be taxed if they did, with that money being shared with the smaller-revenue clubs. The union has maintained that the ceiling is equivalent to a cap, but Executive Director Donald Fehr refused to speculate on the owners’ new plans.

“At this stage they know from us what is important, what the concerns are, what we believe is appropriate,” Fehr said. “It doesn’t serve any purpose to attempt to characterize it in advance.”

Said Usery: “I’ve done my utmost to urge the owners to take into account the players’ position and the players’ concerns to certain things (such as the cap).

“A lot of issues have been discussed and continue to be discussed.”

A management lawyer said Saturday that the Washington meetings may be the last hope for a negotiated settlement. The owners said Friday that barring an agreement, they will probably be forced to declare an impasse and implement the salary cap in early to mid-December.

The lawyer said that under federal law, any proposal--such as the cap--that has been bargained to an impasse in good faith can be implemented even if another proposal is later put on the table.

“It is not the last proposal that has to be implemented,” he said.