EDITORIAL FARE HOAX MTA NEEDS REFORM, NOT HIGHER CHARGES.

Given that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is entering contract negotiations with its powerful bus drivers and mechanics unions, its latest warning of fare hikes must be taken with an enormous grain of salt. It's not hard to discern a negotiating strategy here: Rally the public to management's side with fears of impending financial doom and rising fares.

Still, scare tactics don't work without some basis in truth, and there's no denying that decades of financial mismanagement are quickly catching up with the MTA.

After all, this is the transit agency that squandered $145 million on a massive, swank headquarters for itself.

It's the agency that blew $4.5 billion on a subway to nowhere.

It's the agency that placed itself under an expensive and burdensome 10-year federal consent decree.

It's an agency that panders to politicians and their pals better than it plans for the region's future.

And it's the agency that's never been able to say no to union demands, no matter how unrealistic.

No wonder, then, that the MTA now stares at a $150 million budget shortfall for the coming financial year.

Even so, talk of fare hikes might make for a good bargaining tactic, but it has no place in the current discussion over the future of mass transit in L.A.

That's because the biggest problem with mass transit in Los Angeles remains lack of ridership. Despite the relative success of the Orange Line, most MTA projects are under-used - a problem that would only be exacerbated were fares to go up.

Before MTA officials even consider raising fares, they need to make better use of the $2.8 billion annual budget they already have.

They should first make some long overdue administrative cuts. They should look at ways to save money after the consent decree mercifully comes to an end. They should make increasing ridership their No. 1 planning priority. And that means they should stop expending time, effort and money on a hare-brained scheme to extend the Red Line to the ocean.

Without a doubt, the MTA has many serious needs. But subsidizing its bloat and scaring off commuters aren't among them.