There's a lot of reaction against Gov. George Pataki's budget these days. People are protesting, organizations are issuing press releases, advertisements are running, legislators are speechifying. In order to make their point, advocates often rely on extreme cases to illustrate the potentially devastating impacts of Pataki's budget.

But in New York City, where 95 percent of the residents make less than $100,000, such a strategy isn't necessary. Pataki's budget won't cause pain just when catastrophe strikes, but when New Yorkers sit down at their kitchen tables to pay their bills. Middle-class families, in particular, will feel the pinch of state spending cutbacks every time they watch their children struggle with lessons unlearned in an overcrowded classroom, or glance out the window at a dilapidated playground or an unplowed city street.

The middle class, too, is concerned that their neighborhoods will be less safe because cities across the state can't afford to hire more cops, that their streets will become dirtier, that the nursing homes and senior centers where they send their parents might close. Many working New Yorkers, even with salaries of $100,000 or more, are often a paycheck or a pink slip away from losing their health insurance and modest savings.

These attitudes are well illustrated by a poll conducted last week of some 300 New York City residents for the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy. According to the results of the random survey conducted by phone, 70 percent were worried about having quality health insurance for themselves and their families, 62 percent about making ends meet and being able to afford every-day things, 68 percent about having quality, affordable housing, and 82 percent about the quality of the city's public schools. The governor may have dressed up his own version of the Republican Party's failed "trickle-down economics" in the rhetoric of "no job-killing taxes," but he isn't fooling New York City's hard-pressed families.

The fact that under Pataki's budget the wealthiest individual and corporate New Yorkers won't have to give their fair share to close our multibillion-dollar deficits should make the city's middle class angry. But despite their increasing fragility, the middle class is more isolated than ever. Politicians and advocates often forget about those who earn too much to avail themselves of the safety nets established for the very poor and make too little for the tax breaks given to the very rich. Progressives often think that the middle class can fend for themselves. That strategy is short-sighted. This is nowhere more obvious than in the case of this severe budget crisis.

Hard-working New Yorkers, in exchange for the taxes they pay, expect the government to provide the services they depend on to maintain a decent quality of life. Those things aren't favors. It is quite ironic that conservatives justify gratuitous tax cuts to put money back in the pockets of the people. What they selectively omit is that the money that fills the government's coffers does belong to the people - and it's there to serve them. Apparently, Gov. Pataki and President George W. Bush think that our taxes belong to the wealthy few who already are receiving disproportionately larger federal tax cuts than regular wage-earners. These lucky few are also far less burdened by Albany's new taxes, fees, fines and service cuts. For families on budgets, however, a $105 parking ticket can be a day's pay. Even the price of a transit-fare increase adds up. Unlike the state, which can borrow billions to tide itself over in hard times, families simply have to do without.

Under Pataki's budget, pre-kindergarten programs will be eliminated for 4-year-olds. Where are working families supposed to place their children? Just because children are small doesn't mean the bill for private nursery schools is. Aid to pay for full-day kindergarten programs and reducing class size in the early years would also be cut. CUNY tuition will be increased by more than $1,200. Of course none of this makes sense in the long run. As a society, we save money when we invest in early childhood education and smaller class sizes and after-school programming. For one thing, college graduates pay more in taxes on average than unskilled workers without high school diplomas. But in the long run, our current political leaders who are pushing these draconian cuts won't be feeling the pain they're causing today.

Gov. Pataki is telling New Yorkers that government will have to do more with less. But in plain English, Pataki's budget will mean that New Yorkers will have to do more with less - fewer cops and teachers and health-care workers; higher college tuition, subway fares, tolls and fines.

Recently, the governor said, "Make no mistake, these are very difficult times, but if we make the right decisions, we can turn crisis into opportunity."

To date, Gov. Pataki has made all the wrong choices for New York's middle-class families. Advocates and organizers can make the right choice by reaching out to them. There is a new and potentially powerful alliance of interest between the middle class and the working poor in New York. And even Gov. Pataki's voodoo economics can't make it disappear.

We've all heard stories of college-educated professionals struggling to find housing they can afford, outer-borough home owners worried about the costs of caring for their elderly relatives, and families who have conscientiously saved for their retirement watching their pension savings vanish in the stock market. Gov. Pataki's budget will affect all of these New Yorkers, and advocates for public services must speak to them in order to speak for them.

Executive Director of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy