EDITORIAL BANKROLLING BILLIONAIRES STAPLES CENTER EXPANSION PLAN IS A GIVEAWAY FOR THE RICH.

IT'S common to see panhandlers working the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Usually they're on Skid Row, dressed in rags, begging for spare change.

But the panhandlers from Staples Center are a different breed altogether. They wear expensive suits, and they're asking for a lot more - about $75 million.

These high-priced beggars - financiers, attorneys and consultants on the payroll of billionaires Rupert Murdoch and Philip Anschutz - come to the L.A. City Council pleading hardship.

They insist that their unimaginably rich bosses can't afford to add a four-star hotel, a convention center and entertainment venues to the Staples complex without a whopping public subsidy.

All they need to create an artificial West Coast version of New York's Times Square is a $60 million to $75 million break in the city's room tax and maybe some hidden costs to taxpayers nobody really wants to talk about now.

If the mayor and City Council sign on, the billionaires will get to skip out on a hefty tax that's paid by all the hoteliers in the city who don't have such deep pockets.

And, of course, the loss of revenue for city coffers is a cost that would be felt by all Angelenos, either in diminished services or high tax rates.

The winners in the Staples-expansion proposal are the same folks who come out on top in every City Hall back-room deal:

The developers and the downtown power brokers get their subsidy. The unions get a sweetheart contract, which they've already negotiated with management. And the politicians, no doubt, will be rewarded for their cooperation with generous campaign contributions.

Average Angelenos - who can only afford to go to Staples Center when it's charging $10 a person to watch Lakers' away games on television - would get nothing but the bill.

The swanky new entertainment, dining and shopping venues that their tax dollars would support would be as financially beyond the reach of most fans as Lakers games are today.

Staples developers had hoped that the City Council and mayor could take advantage of their lame-duck status and public enthusiasm about the Lakers' championship to hammer the deal through before new officials take office in July. But proving even the worn-out pols at City Hall can be shamed, that now seems unlikely.

So it will probably be up to the new council and mayor to make an early choice between the public and the special interests.

Don't get us wrong: a bigger and better Staples complex would be a welcome development, but those who stand to profit from it - and not the taxpayers - should foot the bill.

Taxpayers have been subsidizing the delusional fantasies of downtown developers and land speculators to the tune of billions of dollars for years.

It's come at the expense of the neighborhoods where City Hall never has the money or the commitment to fulfill its promises.

Where's the sixth Valley police station, the long-overdue Van Nuys Civic Center, redevelopment of North Hollywood and the Northeast Valley? Where are a thousand other unfulfilled promises to the Valley and neighborhoods all over the city?

Let's see City Hall fulfill these promises before there's any more giveaways to billionaires.