November 21, 1982

IF Mayor Koch has his way, Long Island residents, along with other suburbanites, will soon have to pay more for the privilege of working in New York City. But before the Mayor has his way, he will have to overcome formidable, well-entrenched opposition from suburban legislators of both parties, and most legislators say that his proposal - for a $100 million increase in the income tax on commuters - is not going anywhere. State Senator Norman J. Levy, Republican of Merrick, called the plan an ''unbelievable deja vu'' and suggested that Mr. Koch would be wise to withdraw it before it ever gets to Albany. Arthur J. Kremer, Democrat of Long Beach and chairman of the Assembly's Ways and Means Committee, said: ''The chance of the commuter tax passing in either house is very remote.''

In his first post-election speech outside the White House, President Reagan staked out the rhetorical ground from which he would prefer to conduct the 1983 spending - especially the defense spending - debate. ''Propaganda'' that his proposed five-year, $1.6 trillion military buildup and his 1981 supply-side tax cut have produced estimated deficits of $200 billion or more through 1986 is ''real dipsy doodle,'' Mr. Reagan told savings bankers meeting in New Orleans last week. Nondefense spending, Mr. Reagan said, was the cause, and would have to bear the burden.

IT WAS a bold break with a century-old tradition. In 1972, a Congress roused by growing urban unrest voted to lump together an amalgam of obsolete military emplacements, underfinanced state parks and decrepit beachfront facilities around New York Harbor to form America's newest national park: Gateway National Recreation Area. The key concept supporting the outlandish proposal to develop a national park that lacked the overpowering beauty of Yellowstone (established in 1872) or the awesomeness of the Grand Canyon was to bring ''parks to the people'' - to the millions in the Greater New York-New Jersey metropolitan area who would never visit the western parks. Essential to the fulfillment of that promise was a system that would make the 26,000 acres of Gateway accessible to the millions of recreation seekers in the region. Today, 10 years after Gateway was approved by Congress, the park's four units in New Jersey and New York are among the most heavily used in the national park system. However, they are still beyond reach for many more people because of the lack of a viable transportation system.

On Oct. 27, Judge Martin Nigro of Superior Court was named as a one-man grand jury to investigate allegations of illegal dumping and storage of hazardous waste by three Connecticut companies, including Environmental Waste Removal Inc. of Waterbury. The other companies were the Connecticut Treatment Corporation of Bristol and Tri-Chem Environmental Industries Inc. of Stamford. On the same day, at the request of Austin J. McGuigan, the Chief State's Attorney, Governor O'Neill directed that legal proceedings be initiated to enforce a cleanup order against the Waterbury company. The Governor further called for ''closure of the plant until it is in compliance with all state and Federal requirements.''

Still gracing both sides of East 73d Street in the block between Lexington and Third Avenues and forming a kind of mews there are 15 buildings dating from the turn-of-the-century or before. They were not included in the East Side Historic District, which runs roughly from Fifth to Lexington Avenues between 59th and 79th Streets, but they were officially recognized as city landmarks by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1979.