PROPOSED STATE TAX CUTS WILL HURT STATE'S NEEDIEST.(PERSPECTIVE)

Byline: MARTIN MANJAK ALBANY This letter via e-mail

The juxtaposition of Thomas Carroll's article praising the Pataki tax cuts and a letter from a reader decrying the proposed reduction in Tuition Assistance Program funds (Times Union, March 5) exposes the half-truths that characterize Carroll's piece.

Carroll, president of CHANGE-NY and a former Pataki appointee, is fond of extolling the cash benefits realized by low- and middle-income families. What he assiduously avoids mentioning is the cost of those benefits in the form of lost social and health services, the weakening of environmental safeguards, and the reduction in state aid to local school districts. …