Clinton Plan Contains Money for the Valley : Finances: Budget allots $5 million for Santa Monica Mountains land acquisition and $184 million to extend Metro Rail to North Hollywood.

President Clinton’s $1.52-trillion budget unveiled Monday contains $5 million for land acquisition in the Santa Monica Mountain Recreation Area and $184 million for extension of the Metro Rail system to North Hollywood, according to congressional staffers.

The proposed parkland funds are particularly welcome because the Administration budgeted no money last year for the purchase of additional property.

“There is very often broad differences between what the Administration recommends and what Congress appropriates (for land acquisition),” said Melissa Kuckro, legislative director for Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills). “We do not put too much stock one way or the other at this point. While this is no indicator of the final outcome, this is very helpful.

“The subcommittees really go their own way on dividing the money among projects,” she said.

Kuckro and other congressional staffers said that a visit to the park by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in June played an important role in getting the money earmarked.

Babbitt toured parts of the recreation area with Beilenson and Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) and seemed to take a personal interest in the park, Kuckro said.

“This shows that the Administration really wants to keep building the park,” she said.

The Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area is a relative newcomer to the federal system, having been authorized in 1978. Since that time land prices have been so high in California that Congress has often directed 10% to 20% of the national parkland acquisition budget to the purchase of more land in the Santa Monicas.

About 20,000 acres have been acquired so far for the park, and the federal government would like to purchase 16,000 more, Kuckro said.

Congressional staffers spent the day poring over the weighty budget document, trying to gauge its net effects on the Valley. California stands to benefit from new programs proposed by the Clinton Administration but will suffer cuts in other areas.

Most aides Monday found it impossible to render an accurate verdict until the various federal departments supply more detailed budget breakdowns.

The Los Angeles Metro Rail system is in line to receive $184 million to continue construction on a third leg--which will include a segment from Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street to North Hollywood. The proposed allotment is $14.3 million more than last year’s budgeted amount, staffers said.

An aide to Rep. Berman reported that $250,000 for the William O. Douglas Outdoor Classroom was included in Clinton’s proposed budget.

“That is very good news,” said the aide.

The nature center in Topanga Canyon used to be private, but Berman was able to get legislation passed allowing the federal government to offer continuing assistance. Under the funding scheme devised by Berman, the center will eventually be donated to the National Park Service.

No specific request was made to continue work at the Hansen Dam Recreation Area. But Berman aides were not surprised--or alarmed.

The Army Corps of Engineers, which is working to complete a boating and swimming lake at the dam, rarely makes specific requests for recreation projects at this point in the budget process, aides said.

An appropriation for additional work at the dam will be developed later in the session, staffers said.

The Valley, awash in struggling defense and aerospace firms, also got some good news on the defense conversion front.

The Clinton budget sets aside $4.8 billion for conversion programs, ranging from worker retraining to the development of dual-use technology by Pentagon contractors.

The Technology Reinvestment Project is slated to receive $625 million, and the Advanced Technology Program is budgeted to get $450 million.

The programs help provide financial, research and marketing assistance for technically advanced high-risk enterprises, many of which are in the process of adjusting to post-Cold War markets.

Berman aides were also optimistic over Calstart--the Burbank-based consortium of private companies, utilities and government agencies working on advanced transportation technologies. A 14% increase in the research and development budget of the Commerce Department bodes well for Calstart, the staffers said.

The Administration has also proposed $2.1 billion for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, a 22% increase over 1994.

As the state has struggled with a lingering recession, the problems of illegal immigration have been magnified.

Many politicians have toughened their rhetoric on the issue and have called on the federal government to give the Border Patrol--part of the INS--adequate funds for more agents and equipment.

Gov. Pete Wilson has already budgeted an unprecedented $2.3-billion in federal funds in his proposed 1995 state budget to bail the state out of soaring costs of illegal immigration.

Without substantial federal assistance to cover the cost of providing education and emergency medical care to undocumented residents and imprisoning illegal immigrants, California lawmakers will be forced to raise taxes or make even deeper budget cuts.

Clinton Administration officials stressed that, while their budget blueprint contains no money to reimburse states for delivering services to illegal immigrants, it does include about $3 billion to provide health care and education to indigent people in California, a vast majority of whom are undocumented residents.

Times staff writer Glenn F. Bunting contributed to this article.