HARRISBURG -- As legislators continue talks at the Capitol to find several hundred million dollars needed for statewide transportation improvements, Gov. Ed Rendell will make a special trip to Pittsburgh tomorrow to enlist top business and community leaders in his efforts to rescue ailing mass transit systems in Allegheny County and Philadelphia.

		Previous coverage Higher bus fares not likely to reverse (1/29/05)

He plans to meet privately with about 35 corporate, labor, university and community officials, asking them to contact state legislators from southwestern Pennsylvania for support in resolving the serious funding crises that face the Allegheny County Port Authority and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.

Rendell is trying to head off the fare increases and service reductions that both transit agencies will institute in early March if the state doesn't provide additional funding, said spokeswoman Kate Philips.

Tomorrow's meeting in Pittsburgh follows a similar meeting that Rendell held last week with community leaders in Philadelphia.

"He's encouraging business and community leaders to work with their legislators to build a consensus on a funding solution for mass transit," Philips said. "He wants to hear their concerns. He fully understands the impact of the proposed fare increases and service cuts on the local economy."

When Rendell was mayor of Philadelphia in the early 1990s, that city had a 40-day transit strike, "so he knows full well the crippling effect that transit problems can have on a major metropolitan area," Philips said.

Expected at the meeting are Mayor Tom Murphy; county Chief Executive Dan Onorato; Pitt Chancellor Mark Nordenberg; Carnegie Mellon University President Jared Cohon; Allegheny County Labor Council President Jack Shea; Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce President Barbara McNeese; Duquesne Light Chief Executive Officer Morgan O'Brien; U.S. Steel Corp. President John Surma Jr; and many others.

Some legislative leaders recently have complained that Rendell seems too focused on urban mass transit systems and should be doing more to find money to build and repair highways, local roads, bridges and smaller airports all across the state.

Philips replied to that criticism saying that Rendell "understands that Pennsylvania's transportation needs are comprehensive, and that mass transit is an integral part of that system. Our needs as a whole need to be looked at. He understands the need to find funding for roads and bridges as well."

Administration officials have been meeting at the Capitol with Republican legislators, who represent many small towns and rural sections of the state and who want something done to fix their roads and bridges rather than just concentrating on bus and trolley needs in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

Also pushing for a more comprehensive, statewide solution is a year-old group called the Keystone State Transportation Funding Coalition, which has a wide range of members, including the AFL-CIO, transit unions, road-building contractors, asphalt and concrete makers, county and township officials, rural groups like the state Farm Bureau and state Grange and even a group of milk dealers.

"It's a very comprehensive group," said Robert E. Latham, of Associated Pennsylvania Constructors, a coalition member that represents road-builders such as Trumbull Corp. and Mosites Corp. in the Pittsburgh area.

"One of our goals is to come up with a long-term plan for public transit, as well as addressing unmet needs for larger state highways, smaller local roads, bridges, railways and airports," Latham said.

The Port Authority of Allegheny County also belongs to the coalition.

"We are supporting an initiative to find a more comprehensive solution to funding the state's transportation needs," said Port Authority spokesman Bob Grove, who added that Port Authority officials will attend tomorrow's meeting with Rendell.

In a letter to Rendell last week, the Keystone Coalition said the public transit fiscal crisis is "at the top of the list of legislative priorities" facing the General Assembly.

It said it supports ongoing negotiations to find a "dependable source of funding" for mass transit, but added, "This is only one piece of the puzzle."

Besides the urban transit problems, Latham said PennDOT faces a $6 billion shortfall for highway projects over the next six years. Hundreds of township, borough and county roads and bridges across the state need structural repairs. "One of the major cost items for local governments is maintaining their roads and streets," he said.

Smaller airports throughout the state also need help, he said. Their main source of state funding, a tax on jet fuel, hasn't changed since 1984.

As Rendell heads to Pittsburgh, three questions still linger about transportation problems:

How much money realistically can be approved?

Where will the funding come from?

When will it be available?

While Pittsburgh and Philadelphia transit officials want the money approved by late February, some Republican legislators want to wait until June and make the talks on transit funding part of the overall negotiations on the 2005-06 state budget, which takes effect July 1.

The Keystone Coalition favors approving additional transportation funding now, so that road, bridge and transit needs don't get lost in the budget shuffle.

The coalition favors increasing the state's gasoline tax by 8 cents for road/bridge work and lifting the current $75 million cap on sales-tax funds earmarked for transit, but Rendell doesn't like either idea.

Rendell does like a plan by Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia, which would increase certain motor vehicle fees to raise $110 million for urban mass transit, but GOP legislators don't like the Evans idea, saying they don't think it's constitutional.

They're focusing on a $580 million transportation plan by State Rep. Keith McCall, D-Carbon. Latham also said it could constitute "the basis for a solution."

McCall's plan would raise $200 million for urban transit, $100 million for local roads and bridges, plus $280 million for major state highways.

The additional funds for mass transit would come from increasing the state's 1 percent real estate transfer tax by 0.5 percent.

The $200 million in transit funding would erase the current $62 million shortfall faced by SEPTA and the Port Authority's $30 million deficit and also would aid the 29 smaller transit agencies around the state.

The $100 million for township, borough and county roads would come from higher vehicle registration fees. Car registration would go to $43 from the current $36, while registration fees for larger vehicles, such as sport utility vehicles and mini-vans, would rise to $50.

The $280 million for PennDOT to use for highway building would come from making permanent a 4-cent-a-gallon increase in the state's gasoline tax that just took effect Jan. 1.

That gas-tax increase is based on the wholesale price of gasoline, which has increased in recent months. But if it eventually declines, the 4-cent-a-gallon increase also could disappear. McCall's plan would make permanent the current state gas tax (totaling 30 cents per gallon) and direct the additional annual money to state highways and bridges.

Neither Rendell nor legislative leaders can say, however, whether the McCall plan, or some version of it, might be enacted soon enough to provide aid to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia transit systems by late February.