Gov. Ed Rendell offered a message of tough love to the Port Authority and its unions last night, offering to help in negotiations while warning that a long strike would be a crippling blow to hopes for increased state funding for mass transit.

	Tony Tye, Post-Gazette Mass transit supporters, from left, Stan Covert, Tim Vining, Karen Warman and Eugene Mariani, rally yesterday outside the State Office Building, Downtown, demanding that lawmakers approve funding for public transportation. Click photo for larger image.

"Time is running out for mass transit,'' Mr. Rendell said, emphasizing the stakes in the labor talks as he headed to separate meetings with representatives of management and labor.

"Mass transit ... has been a stepchild in Pennsylvania for a long time,'' the governor said. "The only reason the transit agency here in Pittsburgh didn't have to do layoffs, service cuts, fare increases was because I flexed some highway funds to fill the needs of mass transit. It wasn't a very popular move in Harrisburg.''

Mr. Rendell referred to transfers of federal highway funds that were used to shore up the finances of the Port Authority as well as the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority. Mr. Rendell's administration was credited with helping SEPTA and is unions resolve a brief strike earlier this month.

"That money is gone; it runs out on Jan. 1, 2007,'' Mr. Rendell said of the highway finds. "And my message to both the union and the management tonight is we cannot have a long strike. We cannot have a contract that's unaffordable, or we will lose support in Harrisburg for any increase in dedicated funding for mass transit.''

Mr. Rendell said that he didn't anticipate any actual negotiations at last night's sessions at the Sheraton Station Square Hotel. He said that for the time being, local figures like County Chief Executive Dan Onorato would likely play a larger role in the talks. But he said that his administration would continue to be available if the two sides sought intervention.

"I'll be here on Thanksgiving Day if they want me,'' Mr. Rendell said.

A spokesman for Mr. Onorato said he was scheduled to meet separately last night with representatives of the Port Authority and Local 85, Amalgamated Transit Union. The union, which represents 2,300 bus and trolley operators, mechanics and other hourly workers, has set a vote for Sunday to allow its executive board to call a walkout if there's no progress in talks.

The governor said that a prime reason for his involvement in the SEPTA talks, and his offer to play a similar role in the Port Authority dispute, was their potential to impair the Legislature's willingness to fund transit.

"They don't need much of a strike to beat up on mass transit,'' Mr. Rendell said of the lawmakers. "They use this as a way of saying, 'See, these guys can't get their own act together. Why should we give them more funding?'

"I also want to deliver the message that both sides have to give,'' Mr. Rendell said. "The union has to understand that the only reason we haven't faced crisis proportions is that we have a governor from a big city that is transit-dependent and understands this, but I can't keep my finger in the dike very much longer.''

About two dozen people rallied yesterday outside the State Office Building, Downtown, demanding that legislators approve new funding for public transportation systems.

The rally, organized by Save Our Transit, included local activists and public transportation users.

"This is not a question of whether bus drivers make too much money," Gabe Morgan, vice president and director of Local 3 of the Service Employees International Union, said at the rally. Local 3 represents about 5,000 people in Pittsburgh.

Mr. Morgan said 65 percent of his union's Pittsburgh members depend on public transportation and could lose their jobs if a public transit strike occurs.

Stephen Donahue, a co-founder of Save Our Transit, called legislators "hypocrites" for not providing funding for public transit but approving pay raises for themselves, although both the House and the Senate later repealed the raises.

"Those who clean the buses are bigger assets to the state than any lawmaker," Mr. Donahue said.