BILL WOULD FORCE MTA TO SHARE; FUNDING FREEZE PROPOSED.

Byline: Jennifer Knight Daily News Staff Writer

U.S. Rep. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon said Wednesday he will introduce a bill freezing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's federal transit funding unless the agency agrees to share the money equally among all regions and cities in its service area.

The proposed bill would require the MTA to fairly distribute its share of state and federal transportation funds. Congress is writing a six-year, $218 billion transportation spending plan called the Building Efficient Surface Transportation and Equity Act.

If McKeon's bill passes, the MTA's Metro Red Line project could face further delays. It already is running a few months behind its scheduled opening date in 2000.

``What we're working toward is requiring the MTA to sit back down with the cities and negotiate in good faith their funding from the BESTEA bill and make sure a fair portion of it is distributed to the cities and unincorporated area,'' said Bob Cochran, McKeon's chief of staff.

A separate bill already is pending in the state Legislature that would address the same problem. AB 1759 by Lancaster Republican George Runner, now before the Assembly Transportation Committee, specifies that certain cities and localities within MTA jurisdiction would get a proportional share of federal and state gasoline tax funds that are overseen by the MTA board under legislation passed last year.

Proponents of the Runner bill complain that the MTA board, made up of mostly Los Angeles-area representatives, does not service the northern areas of the county evenly.

The uproar started earlier this year when the MTA voted to take $209 million, about one-third of the new gasoline taxes it expects over the next six years, to help finish work on the Metro Red Line extension to North Hollywood.

MTA officials declined comment but have said the Red Line project will benefit the entire region, and that spending the funds that way is appropriate.

But north county officials said if the MTA follows through on its subway plans, their areas would lose about $3.5 million, said Brian Craig, a Runner spokesman.

If neither of the bills passes, the cities' officials are worried that the MTA's severe organizational and management problems will begin to hurt roads and other transportation programs in their areas.

``It will not enable us to have a continual supply of money to build our arterial street systems,'' said Jeff Long, Lancaster's public works director.

Long said he foresees road and transportation systems falling into disrepair if they do not hammer out an agreement anytime soon.