Audit of MTA’s Rail Funding for the Valley Is Requested

Former Assemblyman Richard Katz and City Councilwoman Laura Chick called Thursday for an audit of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to determine if the agency has given the San Fernando Valley its share of rail funding.

In particular, the two Valley lawmakers want to make sure that the MTA has complied with a 1984 law that requires spending 15% of all local rail money in the Valley or setting it aside in a trust fund.

Katz and Chick say the so-called Valley Trust Fund should have a value of about $500 million by now.

“I don’t think anyone has asked for an accounting of that fund,” Katz said. “My guess is the money has not been accounted for properly.”

But even if the MTA has failed to give the Valley its share, Katz and Chick are not likely to get any relief because the MTA is in financial trouble and is struggling just to finish the rail projects it has begun.

An audit of the MTA’s $2.8-billion budget by Mayor Richard Riordan’s staff found “‘unrealistic financial assumptions” and a deficit that could grow to $60 million.

Nonetheless, MTA Deputy Director Linda Bohlinger said the MTA has not ignored or forgotten the requirements of the 1984 law. She said 15% of the budget for the Red Line subway has been spent on an extension to Universal City and to North Hollywood, as required by the law.

In fact, she said, she provided Katz a report on the Valley trust fund several years ago.

She added that interest from any unused money has been spent on commuter rail and other Valley transit projects, as required by law.