American Notes GOVERNMENT

For any other Governor, it would have been a minor flap over the state budget. But nothing is routine anymore for Michael Dukakis, especially when it allows Republicans to snicker at his much touted Massachusetts Miracle. Last week the front runner in the Democratic presidential campaign was forced to concede that sagging tax revenues have thrown his $11.6 billion 1988 budget out of balance by more than $300 million, with additional red ink forecast for 1989. Since the Massachusetts constitution mandates a balanced budget, Dukakis must trim spending programs -- a task that should be good practice if he ever moves to the Oval Office.

The Massachusetts misstep is certain to be magnified by the G.O.P. Already, Bush Spokesman Peter Teeley dubs the Duke's record "one of the greatest con jobs in American politics." But despite overheated G.O.P. rhetoric, Dukakis' budget woes are not insoluble and the state remains prosperous. The Governor's major political miscue was to press for an overly aggressive expansion of state programs, in part so that he could brag about them on the campaign trail. Now he will be hard pressed to pay for them. It is all rather embarrassing for Dukakis -- until one remembers the size of the Reagan Administration's deficits.