The county Board of Supervisors and 14 members of the Southland’s congressional delegation Tuesday asked the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to prioritize projects in Los Angeles County in their bid for federal money.

“The MTA long-range plan does not currently have a strategy to access much-needed federal funds for several years,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena.

Members of Congress and county supervisors wrote to the MTA asking the agency to include the Foothill and Eastside extensions of the Gold Line and the Crenshaw-South Bay Transit Corridor in its funding priority list.

“If the board does not include these projects, we leave hundreds of millions of federal dollars on the table that will be directed elsewhere in the country,” Schiff said. “At a time when our unemployment rate is among the highest in the nation, the MTA board cannot afford to overlook the economic imperative to include these projects in its long-range plan.”

Schiff was joined by Reps. David Dreier, R-San Dimas, Judy Chu, D-El Monte, and Grace Napolitano, D-Santa Fe Springs, in spearheading the letter, signed by 10 other members of Congress.

“Regardless of where you live in Southern California, traffic congestion and air quality impact your quality of life,” Dreier said in a statement.

“In order to combat gridlock and its effects, we must pursue effective transit alternatives and prioritize our entire region’s needs. It’s our hope that the MTA board will join us in moving forward to help secure the federal resources needed to create jobs and invest in an infrastructure that works for all Southern Californians.”

The letter from the congressional representatives stated that the MTA staff had estimated that Los Angeles County should receive $200 million federal funding annually for transportation projects.

The county plans to spend $40 billion over 30 years on local transportation projects under Measure R.

The MTA’s plan puts the county at risk of being cut out of a critical federal funding for these new projects for several years, according to the letter.

The Board of Supervisors, acting on a motion by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, joined the Congressional delegates in urging the MTA to develop a more inclusive, regional strategy.

“In its current form, the MTA long-range plan is short-sighted,” Supervisor Michael Antonovich said. “Without these projects, the MTA stands to lose hundreds of millions of federal transportation dollars.''

Antonovich and the other supervisors are members of the MTA board and Supervisor Don Knabe is the first vice chair of the board.

Some MTA board members were in Washington, D.C. Tuesday, seeking Southern California’s “fair share” of the $8.9 billion in available federal stimulus funding for high-speed rail projects.

The MTA board was expected to recommend that a high-speed train to link Los Angeles and Anaheim be given $2.19 billion in funding — about half of the state’s $4.7 billion bid for funds under the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act.

“The L.A. to Anaheim high-speed train corridor is simply the most ‘shovel-ready’ high speed train project of its kind in the nation,” said MTA CEO Art Leahy in a statement released by the MTA board. “It deserves to be fully funded so that we can move more quickly to create enhanced regional mobility options, jobs and economic activity that the Obama Administration has envisioned for ARRA-funded projects.”

The train would travel from L.A. to Anaheim in less than 20 minutes.

MTA spokesman Dave Sotero said the potential ARRA funding for high-speed rail is separate from the federal funds available to new transportation projects under “New Starts,” the subject of the congressional representatives’ letter.
Construction on the L.A. to Anaheim train could begin as early as 2012 and open in 2018. It is estimated to create nearly 54,000 jobs.

The federal government is expected to select high-speed train projects for funding early next year.

The MTA board is scheduled to vote on its long-range plan on Thursday.
Members of the congressional delegation that signed the letter to the MTA also included Democrats Diane Watson, Linda Sanchez, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Maxine Waters, Jane Harman and Joe Baca and Republicans Jerry Lewis, Mary Bono Mark, Gary Miller and Ken Calvert.