The Business Week Ahead : ORANGE COUNTY

Big Bucks for Baldwins: Should the owners of a bankrupt business that has left investors holding the bag on $155 million in bonds be able to raise their own salaries before other debts are paid? Alfred and James Baldwin, the brothers who own Newport Beach-based home builder Baldwin Co., will be forced Frida to justify the $844,456 raise each received just weeks before they put the private company into bankruptcy early this summer. The company’s request for court approval of its insider compensation plan will be the subject of a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Barbara starting at 9 a.m. Both the U.S. Trustee’s office and the court-appointed committee representing the company’s creditors have objected to the payment plan, claiming that Baldwin Co. must show that the proposed $975,553 annual salaries for the Baldwins, who pulled down $131,097 each in 1994, are in keeping with what the presidents and chairmen of similarly sized home-building firms are paid. The Baldwins say their old salaries were augmented by their ability to draw against profits--something they can’t do in bankruptcy. Baldwin Co. is also expected to request court approval to increase its $70-million credit line from General Electric Capital Corp.