HARRISBURG -- Gov. Ed Rendell said yesterday he may propose diverting up to $75 million in federal highway money to the state's ailing transit agencies to help them survive the remainder of the budget year. But in his next breath, he cast doubt on his ability to shift those funds.

The Senate, meanwhile, is poised to vote on a bill that could free up $22 million in sales tax revenue for transit purposes, even though the governor's office has already said Rendell would veto such a maneuver.

And so goes the political poker game over how best to bail out the Port Authority of Allegheny County, Philadelphia's SEPTA system and other, smaller transit systems across Pennsylvania.

SEPTA faces a $50 million shortfall through the remainder of the 2004-05 budget year, while the Port Authority's is about $20 million. Those shortfalls remain despite a December reprieve, which brought $18.8 million to the transit agencies, enough to feed them through February.

About $4.7 million was sent to the Port Authority.

Of that $18.8 million, $13.3 million was federal highway money shifted from various regional transportation planning agencies. Rendell can't technically shift that money on his own -- he must get the OK from the individual planning agencies, which must agree to postpone their own projects.

Rendell said he'd be forced to return to the well if the state Legislature didn't come up with a short-term funding solution by the end of the month. A long-term solution to the financial hardships experienced by the state's transit agencies might take two years to craft, and would likely include a gasoline tax increase, so that road and bridge money would be part of the funding puzzle.

Which is why the long-term fix has to wait. "This isn't the time for" an increase in the gasoline tax, Rendell said, because gas prices are high, and the state's gas tax already increased by 3.8 cents a gallon effective Jan. 1.

While he's opposed to another increase in the gas tax, Rendell might leave the 3.8-cent increase in place for a while, freezing it even if oil prices -- the Oil Company Franchise Tax is based on wholesale oil costs -- decline next year.

During a Senate Transportation Committee hearing yesterday, Transportation Secretary Allen Biehler concurred that freezing the franchise tax is an option. He also gave a lengthy explanation of how transit systems are funded, citing innumerable, sometimes unpredictable funding streams and suggesting an overhaul may be in order.

"We're right there, with a collective gun at our head," he said. "If we allow the [fare increases and layoffs] to go ahead in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, I think it really hurts the economy."

Biehler was later grilled by Sen. Jane Earll, R-Erie, who wondered why the state should wait for two years for a long-term fix if everyone knew these shortfalls were approaching.

Either transit "hasn't been a priority in the administration," she said, or the governor was trying to manufacture a crisis by putting off a solution. "I'm particularly chagrined about that kind of tactic," Earll said.

Both the Senate Transportation Committee and the Appropriations Committee yesterday approved Senate Bill 199, meaning the sales tax bill could move to the Senate floor next week.

The Senate plan would temporarily remove a $75 million cap on sales-tax funds earmarked for transit, allowing an extra $22 million in sales tax revenue -- for a total of $97 million -- to go to transit agencies.

Kate Philips, the governor's press secretary, said the plan "isn't viable at all. ... You're taking from Peter to pay Paul, and never paying back Peter."