Fiedler Tangles With L.A. Officials Over Metro Rail

A heated hallway argument broke out on Capitol Hill today between Rep. Bobbi Fiedler and two Los Angeles officials who accused her of lying to a Senate subcommittee while testifying against the Metro Rail subway project.

Fiedler, a San Fernando Valley Republican, told the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on transportation that 73% of Los Angeles homeowners voted down a subway tax last month and that 35 cents of every city bus ticket would be diverted to fund Metro Rail, starting in July.

“That is a direct lie,” Deputy Mayor Tom Houston said when Fiedler emerged from the hearing in a Senate office building.

Houston said that the city charter amendment, which the voters passed last month, asked if voters wanted to be exempt from being taxed for Metro Rail and did not call for a vote against the project.

Jacki Bacharach, chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, denied that 35 cents would be taken from each bus ticket.

Half-Cent County Tax

Instead, Proposition A, passed in 1980, provided that beginning in July of this year, 35% of the half-cent county tax increase for public transit would be dedicated to construction of a rail system.

“We have to run around and correct all of her lies,” Bacharach told reporters.

Fiedler retorted that the voters on Proposition A had approved a subsidy to drop bus fares to 50 cents and did not specifically authorize subsidizing the $3.3-billion Metro Rail with the added sales tax.

“I resent the fact you are taking fares away from students, handicapped and elderly in order to siphon it off,” Fiedler said.

Mayor Tom Bradley, who was not present at the argument, urged the Senate panel to appropriate $150 million in fiscal 1986 to build the first four miles of the Metro Rail from Union Station into the Wilshire Corridor.