February 27, 1984

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. T HE taxi driver taking the young man back to his Manhattan hotel decided to add some sightseeing at no extra charge. He had picked up his passenger at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, and now the cab was heading south on the Henry Hudson Parkway. As they reached 72d Street, the driver, adding commentary to the sightseeing, said to the young man, ''This is where it happened.'' ''Oh, really?'' Andre Robertson remarked. In relating the incident the other day after a Yankee workout here, Robertson explained his reaction to the taxi driver's disclosure to him. ''I didn't know,'' he said. ''I don't know what happened. I'm glad I don't. I don't like waking up screaming in the middle of the night, worrying about the car flipping over or whatever happened. I don't even know.''

The departure of the United States Marines from Beirut's international airport marks the end of one phase of American involvement in Lebanon. But the almost simultaneous shellfire from the battleship New Jersey against targets ashore has left unclear what happens next for United States policy. A key question is whether the pullback of the Marines to Sixth Fleet ships and the resumption of fire by the New Jersey's 16-inch guns is a tactical ''redeployment,'' as President Reagan has insisted, and thus a prelude to even more intense use of American naval and air power to shore up President Amin Gemayel against his Lebanese opponents. The ground rules for the departure of the Marines as announced by Mr. Reagan on Feb. 7 certainly have left that as a possibility. And it is the chance of a stepped-up military operation in Lebanon, with Marine combat units gone, that has renewed criticism in Congress of the Administration's policy.

''You see that surf, I'm going in it. We did our job, I'll put it that way.

An article about Coleco Industries in the Business People column Friday incorrectly reported the time when Charles Winterble left a former employer, Commodore International. He left 18 months ago, and his departure was unrelated to any recent resignations at Commodore.

In what some lawmakers describe as a challenge to Governor Cuomo's handling of the state budget, legislative leaders have agreed on a measure that would set the precise number of workers the Governor should hire at four major state agencies. The move is an outgrowth of a dispute in which legislators have accused Mr. Cuomo of reducing staff size at the four agencies below the levels that the lawmakers thought had been agreed on in last year's budget negotiations. The four agencies are the Office of Mental Health, the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, the State University and the City University. Budget Amendment Planned The legislative leaders have agreed to an amendment to the current budget that would establish the staffing levels the Legislature believes should be in effect. In all four cases, the current staffing is below the levels the Legislature plans to write into the law.