How much should the state increase the gasoline tax? Or does anyone have a better suggestion for raising revenue for roads and bridges?

Is there a cure for what ails the Port Authority and other transit systems besides a lot more money?

Taxpayers will be able to share their thoughts when a nine-member Transportation Funding and Reform Commission, appointed by Gov. Ed Rendell, meets in Pittsburgh next month -- the first of four public meetings to be held statewide but the only one in Western Pennsylvania.

The session will start at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 26 on the 31st floor of the Regional Enterprise Tower, the former Alcoa Building, Sixth Avenue, Downtown.

While the meeting will be open to the public, people who want to testify have been asked to sign up in advance by requesting a form by e-mail at trfc@state.pa.us or by regular mail: Allen D. Biehler, P.E., Secretary of Transportation, P.O. Box 3543, Harrisburg, PA 17105-3543.

"We need to hear from a spectrum of viewpoints as we meet Gov. Rendell's direction to develop a full range of options," Mr. Biehler said in a news release. "We are at a pivotal point for transportation in Pennsylvania and these ideas will help shape realistic proposals that can garner the necessary support to be implemented."

Mr. Rendell issued an executive order in February creating the nine-member commission, asking it to look at options to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public transit, highways and bridges, and their underlying funding.

Its report is due Nov. 15, just after the general election for governor, all members of the state House and half of the state Senate, and just before $412 million in federal highway funds being used to sustain the state's transit systems run out.

But transit officials, including the Port Authority's, have warned that they'll have to start planning fare increases, service cuts and layoffs in mid-2006 without assurances that higher state operating subsidies will be forthcoming.

The commission is taking a hard look at the state gasoline tax, which automatically goes up another 1.2 cents a gallon Jan. 1 as a result of an oil company franchise tax pegged to wholesale prices.

Other public meetings will be held March 23 in Harrisburg, May 18 in Philadelphia and July 20 in Harrisburg.

Five of the nine members of the Transportation Funding and Reform Commission hail from the western half of the state.

They are Mr. Biehler, of Crafton Heights, who chairs the commission; Jim Roddey, a former Port Authority board chairman and former Allegheny County chief executive; Alex Sciulli, former Pittsburgh director of engineering and construction; state Rep. Rick Geist, R-Altoona, majority chairman of the House Transportation Committee; and Sen. Barry Stout, D-Bentleyville, minority chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.