Legislators Threaten Bid to Block MTA Funds

In a stark demonstration of the high-stakes, ethnically charged debate over the future of Los Angeles’ subway, a group of influential Latino legislators on Friday privately demanded that Mayor Richard Riordan deliver more mass transit to East Los Angeles or face a concerted effort to cut off federal money for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, whose board the mayor chairs.

The Latino legislators’ stance represented a significant shift in their position, backing away from insistence on extension of the Red Line to the Eastside and instead arguing for some acceptable alternative that would provide their constituents with reliable public transportation. That’s easier said than done, however, as the MTA is facing a deep financial crisis.

Riordan told the lawmakers that he was sympathetic to the mass transit needs of Eastside residents but stressed that the MTA cannot afford new projects.

For the mayor, the legislators’ demands pose a significant challenge because they come from a powerhouse delegation with a compelling argument: Latinos helped pay for the MTA, and they refuse to be left out of its plans.

What’s more, the debate highlights a new reality in Los Angeles politics. The city’s Latino leadership, long fragmented, united Friday in a rare confrontation with two powerful figures, the mayor and acting MTA chief Julian Burke. And though Latinos historically have lacked the clout to contest city leaders’ actions, the officials posing the arguments Friday include some of the most influential figures at the state and federal level--dramatically illustrating the growing authority of the city’s Latino leadership.

“Too many of us grew up in this area without having had the political empowerment to make decisions and to question decisions,” said Rep. Esteban Torres (D-Pico Rivera), one of those who attended the afternoon session with Riordan.

“We saw Dodger Stadium come about that way. We saw the freeways that bisect our communities. We saw the siting of landfills. There was never any political resistance. The time has now come when we are in a position of responsibility, and we now can deal with questions of equity.”

The meeting, held in Riordan’s office, was attended by two other members of Congress: Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) and Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles). The speaker of the California Assembly, Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), did not attend but met with Riordan earlier in the day.

Together, those officials represent major players at key levels of federal and state government. Torres, for instance, sits on a crucial congressional committee for appropriating MTA money, and Villaraigosa is among the most powerful officials in California state government.

In a meeting with Times editors Friday, Villaraigosa said he believes that Latino lawmakers have every right to demand that alternatives and options to the Eastside subway extension be considered and included in the MTA’s recovery plan.

The Eastside lawmaker has been critical of the MTA’s commitment to building expensive subways. “If you are going to build rail in Los Angeles County, light rail makes the most sense,” the speaker said. “You get more bang for the buck.”

He said he believes a busway and improved bus service could offer a solution for the public-transit-dependent Eastside.

According to sources who attended the meeting between Riordan and the congressional representatives, the session was candid and sometimes tense, though ultimately productive. In essence, the congressional leaders told Riordan that they need mass transportation for the Eastside, and Riordan responded by saying there simply is no money to make that happen, at least for now.

Although the legislators respectfully looked at the numbers on the MTA budget, they were not persuaded to back off.

Villaraigosa and Torres said they will hold legislative and congressional hearings on the MTA in the near future. They intend to put Burke on the spot by questioning what alternatives were considered other than completing the subway to North Hollywood, as the MTA chief has proposed doing in the current draft of its recovery plan.

Villaraigosa said the plan presented by Burke eliminates the Eastside subway extension and fails to offer anything in its place.

Some officials, including Becerra, have suggested halting the North Hollywood subway immediately rather than completing it to the San Fernando Valley. In coming weeks, federal lawmakers will start deciding the fate of the MTA’s request for a $100-million appropriation in the next federal budget to continue building this subway.

Torres, an influential member of the House transportation appropriations subcommittee, said he cannot support that funding unless the issue of equity for the Eastside has been addressed to his satisfaction.

Riordan, however, argued that pulling the plug on the North Hollywood line would undermine the agency’s credibility.

“You have to demonstrate success to get more success,” said Robin Kramer, the mayor’s chief of staff and one of those at the meetings Friday. “You have to finish what you start.”

The subway line, which will run beneath the Santa Monica Mountains from Hollywood to North Hollywood, is 62% complete. More than $700 million has been spent so far. The line is scheduled to open in May 2000.

In addition to the substance of the subway debate, the meetings Friday highlighted the complex political machinery churning in the background.

Latinos played a key role in helping Riordan win the mayor’s office--as well as in his 1997 reelection--and have paid a disproportionate share of the taxes used to fund the MTA, which gets much of its revenues from sales taxes. That gives emphasis to Torres’ call for equity, and it has put the Latino leadership in a bind: Those officials need to deliver something to their constituents in return for their contribution to public transportation, but the well is rapidly running dry.

Indeed, as much as the Latino legislators make a strong case for political equity, they run up against the grim reality of the MTA: According to statistics presented to the congressional officials Friday, the agency is facing an operating shortfall of more than $643 million over the next six years. It also is confronted with a $495-million shortfall in its capital budget. Combined, those create a budget gap of more than $1.1 billion.

In his recovery plan for the MTA, Burke said there is no local money available in the next six years to construct the $1.1-billion subway extension to the Eastside or the nearly $700-million Mid-City extension.

In addition, he contends that there is no funding to construct a light rail line from Union Station to Pasadena, estimated to cost about $800 million.

What that means is that any case for expansion, even a good one, faces a struggle.

That struggle will be further complicated by the likely presence on the ballot of an initiative proposed by county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky to halt further expenditures of sales tax revenues on subway construction once the line reaches North Hollywood.

Villaraigosa said he does not believe Yaroslavsky intended to create ethnic division when he launched his initiative drive.

“This is a Balkanized place. Everybody fights for their turf,” Villaraigosa said. “He is clearly someone who fights for his turf.”

Times staff writer Richard Simon in Washington contributed to this story.