L.A. Considers Ways to Divert LAX Money to City Treasury

With the landing fee crisis behind them, Los Angeles city officials and their allies in Washington now will turn to the question of how to clear the way for diverting airport money to pay for more police.

The officials said they have no intention of touching the hard-won landing fee money--which must be kept at the airport for operations and improvements. Instead, they claim that some of the proceeds from the airport’s gift shops, parking lots and restaurants should now be freed to bolster the anemic city treasury.

To divert money from the airport is illegal under the Airport Improvement Act of 1982. But Los Angeles officials note that exceptions have been made, such as in San Francisco, where the airlines agreed to let the city take a portion of concession revenues, and in Honolulu, where money was spent outside the airport with the approval of Congress.

Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), who is expected to lead congressional efforts on behalf of the city, said a formula might be devised that would make the diversion more palatable to the airlines. The plan might reduce some of the burden the airlines have taken on with the higher landing fees, Berman said.

“You could have some of the concession money stay at the airport, some go to the city for more police and then some to reduce landing fees,” Berman said. “Then you have a high interest by everybody in developing the airport and exploiting its resources.”

A spokesman for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) said that she supports that concept.

Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, who initiated the city’s struggle to take money from the airport, said she hopes that the victory in the landing fee dispute will encourage airlines to take “a wider view” that includes helping bring more police to Los Angeles.

“It really is in the interest of the airline industry to have prosperous and safe cities that people want to move goods in and out of,” Galanter said.

Berman and Los Angeles officials hope that if the airlines will not agree to some diversion, Los Angeles will have a powerful ally in the White House. President Clinton has pledged to make special efforts to help the city recover from the 1992 riots and the recession.

One way would be to push for the diversion of LAX funds, Berman argued. “Here is a way to help Los Angeles with some resources to expand the most understaffed Police Department in the country, without spending a federal dollar,” Berman said.

But officials at the Air Transport Assn., the airline industry group, argue that they too often have been “a voiceless constituency,” targeted by local governments that are too timid to tax residents directly.

They argue that landing fees and other charges come back to residents in the form of higher ticket prices.