To the Board of Trustees and Shareholders
of The Dreyfus/Laurel Tax-Free Municipal Funds:
In planning and performing our audits of the financial statements of The
Dreyfus/Laurel Tax-Free Municipal Funds (comprised of Dreyfus BASIC
California Municipal Money Market Fund, Dreyfus BASIC New York Municipal
Money Market Fund, Dreyfus BASIC Massachusetts Municipal Money Market Fund,
Dreyfus Premier Limited Term Massachusetts Municipal Fund and Dreyfus
Premier Limited Term Municipal Fund), (the Funds) for the year ended
June 30, 2000, we considered the Funds' internal control, including control
activities for safeguarding securities, in order to determine our auditing
procedures for the purpose of expressing our opinion on the financial
statements and to comply with the requirements of Form N-SAR, not to provide
assurance on internal control.
The management of the Funds is responsible for establishing and maintaining
internal control. In fulfilling this responsibility, estimates and
judgments by management are required to assess the expected benefits and
related costs of controls. Generally, controls that are relevant to an
audit pertain to the entity's objective of preparing financial statements
for external purposes that are fairly presented in conformity with
accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Those controls include the safeguarding of assets against unauthorized
acquisition, use, or disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in any internal control, errors or fraud may
occur and not be detected. Also, projection of any evaluation of internal
control to future periods is subject to the risk that it may become
inadequate because of changes in conditions or that the effectiveness of the
design and operation may deteriorate.
Our consideration of internal control would not necessarily disclose all
matters in internal control that might be material weaknesses under
standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants. A material weakness is a condition in which the design or
operation of one or more internal control components does not reduce to a
relatively low level the risk that misstatements caused by error or fraud in
amounts that would be material in relation to the financial statements being
audited may occur and not be detected within a timely period by employees in
the normal course of performing their assigned functions. However, we noted
no matters involving internal control and its operation, including controls
for safeguarding securities, that we consider to be material weaknesses as
defined above as of June 30, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of management,
the Board of Trustees of The Dreyfus/Laurel Tax-Free Municipal Funds and the
Securities and Exchange Commission and is not intended to be and should not
be used by anyone other than these specified parties.
New York, New York
August 4, 2000
