Pittsburgh City Council's finance chairman is circulating stopgap plans for massive increases to property and wage taxes midway through next year to balance the 2004 city budget.

The plans, which Councilman Sala Udin said he hopes won't be necessary, also include increases to parking and deed transfer taxes and other payments starting Jan. 1.

Udin's plans are tied to Mayor Tom Murphy's application for distressed status under state Act 47.

If the state grants that status -- which makes commuter taxes and new spending controls possible -- that could shrink or eliminate some of the increases Udin is proposing. The plans also are necessary as collateral for a $40 million line of credit the city needs from local banks to cover its bills early next year.

"They're placeholders," Udin said of the tax proposals. "I don't expect, if [Act 47] were to pass, that any of them would be implemented."

If the city does not get the state relief and council approves Udin's plans, they could ultimately raise property taxes nearly 40 percent and wage taxes 50 percent next year. That would help balance the $398.6 million budget Murphy proposed for next year, which the mayor left at least $42 million underfunded.

Property taxes would jump by 0.61 mills Jan. 1 (raising $7 million) and another 3.39 mills on July 1 (raising $19.5 million). That would raise the current property tax from 10.8 mills to a total of 14.8 mills.

The councilman also is proposing raising city wage taxes by half a percentage point on July 1, to 1.5 percent, raising $12.5 million. The city currently charges a 1 percent earned income tax and the Pittsburgh Public Schools 2 percent.

Udin's plans are just one of many separate, sometimes conflicting attempts to balance Murphy's budget as the end of the year approaches.

Other council members are pushing separate tax and cost-cutting plans, which could include their own property and parking tax increases, as well as further city layoffs and facility cuts. No one would comment on Udin's latest proposal.

Murphy is pressing for Act 47 status. State legislators still are pushing their own plans, largely to avoid commuter taxes in Act 47 with a raft of other budget-balancing options.

Several legislators met with City Council President Gene Ricciardi and Councilman Alan Hertzberg Sunday to lobby for their plans, which include a $99 fee on workers at for-profit companies. They met with Hertzberg and others again yesterday.

Besides the worker fee, which could raise nearly $13 million, the legislators are proposing cutting expenses by privatizing some city services and increasing revenues by instituting a garbage collection fee, liquidating the Pittsburgh Development Fund and other initiatives.

The driving force behind most of the budget efforts remains distressed status under Act 47 and the commuter taxes that follow.

The Legislature has approved a bill naming a fiscal oversight board on Pittsburgh finances. It would bar the city from being designated distressed, but Gov. Ed Rendell repeatedly has promised to veto it, because the bill does not provide new revenue streams for the city.

The continued prospect of commuter taxes is keeping Murphy's and Udin's budget plans alive, and apparently driving suburban legislators to meet with council members to try to avoid them. Council would get to vote on fiscal reorganization plans under Act 47 that could call for the taxes.

Sens. Jane Orie, R-McCandless, and Sean Logan, D-Monroeville, met with Ricciardi and Hertzberg Sunday on their proposal, along with Republican House members Mark Mustio, Mike Turzai and Tom Stevenson and Democrats Michael Diven and Harry Readshaw.

Diven, a former city councilman from Brookline, said the commuter tax would be only a short-term solution to the city's financial woes and hurt relationships with suburban legislators.

"Instead of diffusing the differences between suburban and city legislators, you're increasing them" with a commuter tax, Diven said in an interview yesterday.

Ricciardi agreed, saying the city needs legislative help to restructure its tax system. But he said Murphy is focused only on winning Act 47 approval, which would hurt relations with legislators and with unions, which could face tighter contract controls if distressed status is approved.

"Is this train just moving toward Act 47, and there's no other station in between?" Ricciardi asked yesterday.

Others on council, including Len Bodack and Jim Motznik, were not so ready to extend an olive branch, saying the legislators had their chance to help the city and chose not to.

"We won the battle and we know that," Motznik said of the commuter tax fight.

The state secretary of community and economic development, Dennis Yablonsky of Mt. Lebanon, has until Jan. 9 to decide on the city's Act 47 request. A financial investigation commissioned by the department and done by Public Financial Management of Philadelphia recommended he declare the city distressed.

Meanwhile the city has to approve a balanced budget by the end of the year and will meet Dec. 29 to 31 to debate budget measures by Udin and others.

Udin's plan raises expenditures in Murphy's $398 million budget by $7.5 million and raises revenues by about $50.7 million, resulting in a new $406.1 million budget.

Besides the wage and property tax increases, Udin's plan contains:

A 0.5 percentage point increase in the 1.5 percent deed transfer tax, raising $1.4 million.

A 3 percentage point increase in the 31 percent parking tax, raising $3 million.

A $4.35 million increase in payments from nonprofit organizations.

A $3 million increase in payments from the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority.

Rejection of Murphy's call for $15 million in firefighters union concessions and spending cuts, but $7.5 million in savings from a hospital takeover of the Emergency Medical Services bureau.