President Reagan is on the right track with his “New Federalism.” though controversial proposals will need a lot of selling to cities, counties and states accustomed to looking to Washington for “big-brother” government. Americans have lost “far too much control over public policies that affect their daily lives,” Reagan told the National Association of Counties convention in Baltimore. His “revised and reduced” New Federalism would return nearly $40 billion in federal programs to states, He presented his first version of the plan in his State of Union speech last January, Since then. the White House has held negotiations with state and local officials. The program’s revised version will be available to Congress by the end of this month. In essence, it calls for states to be responsible for 35 or so major federal programs in the social health – nutrition, education, energy aid transportation, revenue – sharing, and community development areas. One key change is dropping a proposal that the states assume control of the food stamp program which now costs more than $11 billion annuall ; another calls for the federal government to assume responsibility for Medicaid in return for states administering the Aid to Families and Dependent Children program. The federal government would provide money from various excise taxes and general revenue to pay for the programs at 1983 levels through 1987 and in declining amounts for four years after that. From the beginning. Reagan’s federalism idea has received mixed acceptance. On the other hand. numerous backers have pointed out that local government units are closer to the people and in a better position to administer many programs. Moreover the need for relieving the overloaded federal budget has been proved in decades of redink spending, V Democratic mayors of Detroit and Seattle signalled the fight ahead when they rapped the Reagan plan before the congressional Joint Economic Committee, claiming it would harm the cities. Will Reagan aggressively push New Federalism in Congress’? He insists he will. “Our federalism initiatives lie at the very heart of our philosophy of government ” he says. The revised New Federalism blueprint may require long debate. tradeoffs, and fine-tuning. But the general principle is sound. Too long have the people looked to Washington for services that ought to be administered closer to home. The country may never get a better opportunity to reverse the trend.