Report of Independent Auditors
To the Shareholders and
Board of Directors of
Excelsior Tax-Exempt Funds, Inc.
In planning and performing our audit of the financial
statements of Excelsior Tax-Exempt Money Fund, Excelsior
Short-Term Tax-Exempt Fund, Excelsior Intermediate-Term Tax-
Exempt Fund, Excelsior New York Intermediate-Term Tax-Exempt
Fund, Excelsior Long-Term Tax-Exempt Fund, and Excelsior
California Tax-Exempt Fund, the seven funds comprising the
Excelsior Tax-Exempt Funds, Inc. for the year ended March
31, 2000, we considered its 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, and not to
provide assurance on internal control.
The management of Excelsior Tax-Exempt Funds, Inc. 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
generally accepted accounting principles. Those controls
include the safeguarding of assets against unauthorized
acquisition, use or disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in 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 the 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 of specific 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 at March
31, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use
of management, the Board of Directors of Excelsior Tax-
Exempt Funds, Inc., and the Securities and Exchange
Commission and is not intended to be and should not be used
by anyone other than these specified parties.
ERNST & YOUNG LLP
Boston, MA
May 24, 2000
