Congressman Warns City on LAX Plan

A key congressman Monday threatened to seek to reduce funding for Los Angeles transportation projects, including the Metro Rail subway and Alameda Corridor, unless Mayor Richard Riordan backs down from efforts to divert airport funds for city operations.

“If the city fails to desist from misusing airport funds, the committee will be compelled to seek severe reductions of transportation appropriations benefiting the City of Los Angeles,” Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), chairman of the House transportation appropriations subcommittee, said in a strongly worded letter to Riordan.

Riordan--who made the diversion of airport funds to the city treasury a centerpiece of his 1993 mayoral campaign--has proposed shifting $30 million in next year’s budget from Los Angeles International Airport to help support city services. The airline industry has contended that the diversion is unlawful and will endanger airport viability. Riordan contends that the shift is legal.

“The plain truth is that the people of Los Angeles own LAX, not the airline industry, and it is the people of Los Angeles who deserve a fair return on their investment,” Riordan said in a statement.

Wolf’s ultimatum--arriving after the chairman of the U.S. Senate aviation subcommittee also objected to Riordan’s efforts to divert airport funds--worried Metropolitan Transportation Authority lobbyists. They have been working furiously on Capitol Hill to overcome a barrage of negative publicity about the subway construction and secure $158 million in federal funds for the project in the coming year. The federal government is paying for about half of the $5.8-billion project.

County Supervisor and MTA board member Zev Yaroslavsky branded the letter as “nothing but a crass brand of extortion.”

Yaroslavsky said that the mayor’s efforts to make “the airport bear its fair share of the burden of financing municipal services . . . is legal and proper. What is improper is for a member of Congress to abuse his power in this very naked way and threaten an entire region because a mayor doesn’t happen to agree with him on something.”

At City Hall, some council members described Wolf’s letter as empty political rhetoric, while others said it is a clear signal that Riordan should abandon his latest attempt to take money from the airport.

City Council Budget Chairman Richard Alatorre--hoping for millions of dollars from Washington this year to fund extension of the subway through his Eastside district--did not appear worried.

“He’s just one person,” Alatorre said, referring to Wolf. “I think the airport should be paying it’s fair share, and we’re not going to ask for anything more.”

But Councilman Nate Holden, chairman of the council’s transportation committee, said, “I think the mayor needs to back off.”

Calling the letter “very disturbing,” MTA Board Chairman Larry Zarian said he would call Wolf and tell him, “What the city of Los Angeles does is in no way connected to the MTA.”

* Times staff writer Jon Markman contributed to this story.