Critics of New Jersey GOP Governor Christine Todd Whitman's dramatic tax cuts have been predicting that they will force local property taxes to rise.

Not so, according to a study done for the Manhattan Institute.

• In the majority of towns and cities, property taxes have not risen since the cuts took effect.

• Even in municipalities that have raised taxes, property owners are still saving money and will continue to do so, according to the report.

In New Jersey, some 90 percent of state income tax money goes directly to municipalities, which spend most of it on schools, and the only other source of funds for municipalities is through property taxes.

According to the report:

• If present trends continue, for every dollar the average New Jerseyan's income taxes are cut, he will only have to pay an extra 22 cents in local taxes.

• In 1995, the first full year of the Whitman tax cuts, the property taxes of 310 out of 509 school districts studied did not go up at all, when adjusted for inflation.

Researchers believe that local officials are likely to spend as much as they can when the entire state is picking up the bill; but they are reluctant to spend when state aid dries up.

Source: Timothy J. Goodspeed (Hunter College) and Peter D. Salins (Hunter College and the Manhattan Institute), "New Jersey Tax Cuts Have Worked," New York Times, March 16, 1996.