Speedup of Transit Funding to Aid County : Transportation: Bush Administration will make money available for Metro Red Line without waiting for local agencies to raise matching dollars.

Los Angeles County will be the first beneficiary of a new Bush Administration program to distribute promised transit dollars without waiting for strapped local governments to raise matching funds, U.S. Transportation Secretary Andrew H. Card Jr. announced Saturday.

Card said Los Angeles will have immediate access to $95.6 million for the second phase of the Metro Red Line subway, a step aimed at jump-starting the moribund local economy.

“What we have done is try to accelerate the resources that are in the pipeline to get them in circulation to generate jobs,” said Card, who spoke during a telephone interview from Orange County, where he made an unrelated appearance.

“We’re saying you can promise to pay the money back after the project is completed.”

With the infusion of federal cash, local money can be freed for other projects that would have had to wait years for funding. That translates into more jobs, said Jacki Bacharach, a Los Angeles County Transportation Commission member.

“It’s got a ripple effect and that’s what’s important,” said Bacharach, a Rancho Palos Verdes councilwoman.

The grants are expected to create 2,300 jobs over the next two years, according to an LACTC estimate.

The $1.4-billion second segment of the Red Line will start at Wilshire Boulevard and Alvarado Street and end at Western Avenue. A portion of the segment will branch off to Vine Street and Hollywood Boulevard.

Bacharach said the question of translating dollars into local jobs “has been on the front burner” of the agency since January, when a controversy erupted over a plan to award a major rail contract to a Japanese firm. Faced with cries to “buy American,” officials backed down.

The urgency of the matter intensified during the Los Angeles riots, which spawned an ambitious LACTC proposal to help Rebuild L.A. by speeding up its long-range transit plans, including aggressive pursuit of light rail for the Crenshaw district.

“If we can get some of our systems up and running sooner, it will get people to jobs,” Bacharach said.

When the federal government made general promises of help, the LACTC responded by requesting immediate access to funds earmarked for local transportation projects. Federal officials already were looking into putting the money into circulation.

The Bush Administration did not go along with a request in May from Los Angeles to waive the matching funds requirement.

“I favor very strongly a local involvement in the projects,” Card said.

The federal funding dovetails with a recent agreement by the state to speed up $106 million in funding for Metro Rail.

The new policy and the selection of Los Angeles comes amid polls showing President Bush trailing Democratic rival Bill Clinton in California.

Federal legislation allowing for the change was passed in June. Its precursor was a landmark piece of transportation legislation in 1991 that started as a onetime option to push money into the federal highway program, Card said.

Transportation officials have since found a way to place fewer strings on the grant money. Card expressed confidence that the local governments will honor their contract to pay back their share, noting that if they renege, future projects will not be funded.

Other localities are preparing applications for their share of the federal pie, and officials are expecting a flood of applications for the $4 billion they plan to spread nationwide.

“We’re looking to say yes, not to say no,” Card said.