O.C. Transportation Funds Reported Slashed : Congress: $28 million approved by House is cut to $16 million by panel. Enough is left for Disney garage.

Just hours after the House of Representatives authorized $28 million for three Orange County transportation projects--including a mammoth parking structure coveted by the Walt Disney Co.--the subcommittee that controls the purse strings snatched a chunk of the money back, congressional sources said Thursday.

The appropriations subcommittee on transportation reportedly slashed $16 million, more than half of what the House had recommended funding only Wednesday afternoon.

Even so, Orange County transportation officials said the reduction was not likely to stall the 12,000-space parking complex Disney says is central to its plans to build a $3-billion resort adjacent to Disneyland.

“Frankly, if all the projects had hit, it would have been the biggest appropriation for Orange County transportation ever,” said Stan Oftelie, executive director of the Orange County Transportation Authority. “We’re happy with what we got.”

The money fell away in a two-step process: All funds authorized by the House must then win the blessing of House appropriators before they can be released.

In this case, the appropriations subcommittee decided to be more frugal, reducing to $10 million a $15-million appropriation for the Disney garage and for ramps at the San Diego Freeway and Costa Mesa Freeway connectors in Costa Mesa.

The $3 million sought to improve Bristol Street in Santa Ana was cut to $2 million, which is likely to stall work there, Oftelie said.

And the panel appears to have eliminated entirely a $10-million line of credit requested to support the Eastern Transportation Corridor, a planned tollway connecting the Riverside Freeway with the Santa Ana Freeway.

While the other projects are important to Orange County’s transportation future, it is the Disney garage that grabs the limelight. Because Disney contends it cannot build the resort without it, the otherwise mundane parking structure is viewed as a key to a tourist bonanza for the region.

The planned resort includes 5,000 hotel rooms, an amphitheater, a shopping district and a new theme park next to Disneyland called Westcot.

“We hear we got $10 million and it is a major hit for us,” Oftelie said, explaining the county had requested the money in two installments, with the remaining $5 million to come next year. “We’ll just go back next year and ask for the rest.”

The loss of funds is less a function of the rumored dislike of the Walt Disney Co. on Capitol Hill than it is of hard financial times, officials said.

“I think because of the lean budgetary times, we were expecting cuts,” said Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) who fought for the funding. “I always hear the stories about some resistance (to) the Disney name . . . but I can never really find it. People here see in the faces of their grandchildren and children what I see when I take mine to Disneyland, so it’s still more of a positive than a drag.”

The subcommittee’s recommendations have been sealed until the full committee meets after the Memorial Day recess, but word was quick to spread about who got what. Even the reduced figures must still be approved by the full Appropriations Committee, the House and then the Senate.

In other actions, appropriators also approved $25.2 million for the new federal courthouse in Santa Ana, the full amount requested, and $66 million for the Santa Ana River flood control project. Although the flood control money is less than hoped for, it would be supplemented by $16 million left over from this year, bringing the total to the full $82 million sought, officials said.