August 18, 1986

The nation's savings and loan associations are in far worse financial condition than Federal regulators and the thrift industry have acknowledged, new Government research suggests. A study by the General Accounting Office shows that there are 461 more thrift institutions with negative net worth - their liabilities exceed their assets - than the Federal Home Loan Bank Board says there are. The G.A.O. study, evaluating thrift units with a different accounting system than that used by the bank board, also found that 830 other savings and loan associations had net worth less than the 3 percent regulatory minimum. This would mean that 1,291, or 43 percent, of the nation's approximately 3,000 thrift institutions, are either insolvent or close to it.

New Yorkers may save as much as $1.6 billion in lower Federal taxes next year under the legislation drafted by Congressional negotiators, according to preliminary estimates by state tax officials. But the savings are about one-third less than they would have been if the negotiators had not made a last-minute decision to repeal the deduction for state and local sales taxes, the officials said. And they said that because New York State's income taxes are linked to Federal tax laws - and New York City's are linked in turn to Albany's - New Yorkers could face an automatic state or local income-tax increase of as much as $2 billion unless the state amends its system. Governor Cuomo's Washington counsel, Brad Johnson, said the Governor was committed to moving swiftly to cut state tax rates.

Leading Congressional advocates and opponents of the historic tax revision bill that House and Senate negotiators approved Saturday night said today that the measure would almost certainly be enacted this fall but not without further struggle. The bill would bring about the most comprehensive restructuring of the Federal income tax law since World War II. Its reverberations would be felt in the finances of nearly every household and business, and throughout the nation's economy. The bill would lower the top tax rate for individuals, now 50 percent, to 28 percent. And the top tax rate for corporations, now 46 percent, would become 34 percent. Each of the new rates is one percentage point higher than they were in the version of the bill that the Senate passed in June.

A Sudan Airways plane with 60 people aboard was shot down Saturday by Sudanese rebels using SAM-7 antiaircraft missiles, the official Sudan News Agency reported today. There was no immediate official casualty toll, but reports reaching Cairo from Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, indicated there were no survivors. Officials said they did not know if any foreigners were among the 57 passengers and three crew members. [ In Washington, the State Department spokesman announced that no Americans were on the plane. ] A Warning by Rebels The attack came a day after rebel forces in the south, who are known as the Sudan People's Liberation Army, threatened to shoot down all planes flying over the areas they control in the southern provinces.

To the last breaking pitch in the dirt, at which the batter swung crazily because it looked ''just fine'' to him, it was a confusing afternoon for the Yankees. Not one of them hit a single ball hard, and the Yankees headed back for New York after a weekend stint here a lot less chipper than when they arrived and not sure how they had gotten that way. The Yankees lost, 5-0, to the Kansas City Royals today in a game that generated these sights: * Dave Winfield throwing his bat while swinging three times, close to a record even for him. * Mike Easler swinging and missing wildly at the last pitch. ''His pitches were out around the plate,'' he remarked later. ''They looked just fine until you swung.''