Speaking before about 160 people gathered at Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church, Republican Sam Katz said he would not go along with any effort to knock down or undercount Philadelphia's population in the year 2000 Census. The Republicans in Congress have fought hard against estimating techniques that are believed to help larger cities by permitting more thorough counts of homeless and poor populations.

Responding to a question about the Census, Katz said it was absolutely vital to get the most accurate count "because so much of the money that comes to the city is driven by that number."

Katz said that because of declines in population, the city would lose three to four seats in the State House of Representatives and could lose a seat in the State Senate.

"In the long run, we don't get anywhere fighting over the crumbs of reapportionment. We need to regrow the city," Katz said.

The Republican candidate has made the city's population loss of about 150,000 under Mayor Rendell a centerpiece of his campaign.

Democrat John F. Street, who spoke to the audience following Katz, addressed a large part of his remarks toward Katz's criticisms and claims.

Street told the audience that the choice was between himself, "who has a wealth of experience" in dealing with the city's problems, and someone like Katz, who has never been elected to public office.

"If doing it was as easy as saying it, we wouldn't have to have an election," said Street, repeating a favorite campaign tagline.

Street also did his best to tie Katz to the Republicans in Harrisburg and Washington.

"I'm here to tell you that I'm a Democrat, and that's something my Republican opponent doesn't want to talk about," Street said. "I think you do elect more than the person. I think you elect the party."

The Democrats have a 4-1 registration edge over the GOP in the city.

Street said that President Clinton and the Democrats in Washington have been trying to pass legislation appropriating $5 billion to repair rundown schools around the country, "but they can't do it because the Republicans in Congress want to lower taxes."

He suggested that Katz, who also wants to sharply lower city taxes by cutting the wage tax from 4.61 percent to 4 percent in four years, would have a similar bad effect on city services.

"If he knows anything at all about the challenges in front of us," Street said, "he would not be talking about ripping the city's budget in this way."

Last night, Katz again was pressed on his controversial support for a pilot school voucher program in the city's schools.

During a question-and-answer session, a woman in the audience said that his description of the voucher program was not accurate. "It's really not a test. It's a first step for privatization of the schools," the woman said.

Katz responded by citing the case of Milwaukee, Wis., which has run a voucher program. Officials there, Katz said, claim that the voucher program has not destroyed the public schools, but strengthened them.

Responding to a question from a woman in the audience who said that three cases of sexual assault in the Chestnut Hill area had been poorly handled by city police, the Republican candidate cited The Inquirer's series this week about the Police Department's suppression of rape reports in its crime statistics.

He said that there was "documented evidence that there is this systemic problem in the Police Department in dealing with sexual crimes."

Katz said that he had not spoken to Police Commissioner John F. Timoney about the issue, but that he had regard for Timoney and that he was sure the commissioner would deal with the problem.